ELECTIONS

In a race against a notorious name-caller, Biden now has one in his bag: 'convicted felon'

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
USA TODAY

It didn't take long.

Minutes after former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican 2024 nominee, was found guilty of falsifying business records by a New York jury Thursday, President Joe Biden's re-election campaign used this descriptor: "Convicted felon"

Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to make hush-money payments to a porn star by a jury of 12 New Yorkers.

Former President Donald Trump walks to make comments to members of the media on May 30, 2024, after being found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree at Manhattan criminal court in New York, NY. Trump became the first American president to be convicted of felony crimes as a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said the two had sex.

“In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law," wrote Biden-Harris 2024 Communications Director Michael Tyler in an email blast on the verdict. "There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president."

Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain, Tyler wrote.

The prosecutors alleged Trump falsified the records to conceal unlawfully interfering in the 2016 presidential election through the $130,000 hush money payment to port star Stormy Daniels, making the falsification charges felonies. 

The more-than six week-long trial against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was the first criminal trial in United States history against a former president.

Judge Juan Merchan has scheduled Trump's sentencing for July 11, and Trump is out free until then.

“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater," wrote Taylor. "He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power."

Biden is currently in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with his family, and this historic day also coincides with his son, Beau Biden's death nine years ago.

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @SwapnaVenugopal