President Joe Biden’s campaign reacted to Donald Trump’s criminal conviction shortly after the former president was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to his 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Through a statement issued on social media, the campaign wrote that “In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law.”
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box,” the campaign added of Biden’s predecessor and current opponent.
The campaign noted that a criminal conviction would not bar Trump from continuing this campaign for the presidency, or serving in office.
“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. 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. A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November,” the campaign wrote.
Other prominent Democrats reacted to the verdict with similar sentiments. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “Donald Trump is a racist, a homophobe, a grifter, and a threat to this country. He can now add one more title to his list — a felon.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) wrote on X that “Today, our legal system has reaffirmed that no one is above the law, not even a former president.”
“The 34 guilty verdicts in President Trump’s case mean that a jury of his peers, after impartially reviewing the evidence presented and having sworn an oath to perform their duties faithfully, unanimously determined beyond a reasonable doubt – 34 separate times – that the former president broke the law,” he added.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) highlighted Trump’s past legal record in his reaction. “First, a court found Donald Trump to be a sexual abuser. He was then found to be a fraudulent business owner. Now Donald J. Trump is a convicted felon. All are an affirmation of the rule of law. And Trump’s unfitness for office,” he wrote.
“Trump is a convicted criminal,” Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey (D) wrote simply.
Trump himself called the verdict the result of a “rigged, disgraceful trial,” and declared “the real verdict is going to be November 5th, by the people.”