'Convicted felon': Biden's new favorite name for Trump now applies to his son

WASHINGTON ― After Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts in his New York hush-money trial last month, President Joe Biden quickly embraced a new label for his successor and presumptive Republican nominee ? "convicted felon."

“For the first time in American history a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency,” Biden told supporters at a June 3 fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Yet with Tuesday's conviction of Hunter Biden on three gun charges by a federal court jury in Delaware, the same description now applies to the president's son.

Hunter Biden's guilty verdict ? a historic first for a child of a sitting president ? could complicate the Biden campaign's efforts to use Trump's conviction for falsifying business records against the former president in the 2024 election.

Officials on Biden's reelection campaign and congressional Democrats have echoed the president calling Trump a "convicted felon" and "convicted criminal." But after Tuesday's conviction of Hunter Biden, branding Trump a criminal might invite heightened scrutiny about Biden's family.

A source close to the Biden campaign said it won't shy away from calling Trump a "convicted felon" even after Hunter Biden's conviction, insisting Americans know the difference between verdicts for Trump, who is running for president, and Hunter Biden, a private citizen.

But Republican strategist Scott Jennings said Hunter Biden's guilty verdict could provide Trump an effective counter during his first of two televised debates with Biden on June 27.

"Especially if Joe Biden goes in on repeatedly calling Donald Trump a convicted felon, trying to get under his skin," Jennings said. "I think Trump could fire back. It might give Joe Biden some pause on how hard he goes at the debate, because he's going to have to deal with a retort."

Trump also faces indictments in three other pending cases, two of which are federal, including his handling of classified documents and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. Outcomes for each, however, might not come until after the November election.

Richard Painter, a law professor at University of Minnesota who was chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said he doesn't believe the Hunter Biden case has any relevance on Biden attacking Trump as a convicted felon.

"Hunter Biden is not running for president," Painter said. "The real problem is that Donald Trump is running for president, and he has serious legal difficulties, and a lot of them have to do with his conduct in office. That directly goes to whether Donald Trump is capable of being a good president for four years."

Hunter Biden verdict delivers blow to Republicans' argument of 'weaponized' DOJ

Unlike Trump, who has sought to discredit the U.S. judicial system and decried a "rigged trial" after his conviction, President Biden said he will accept the outcome of his son's case, respect the judicial process as Hunter Biden considers an appeal and won't pardon him.

The White House on Wednesday would not say whether Biden would consider commuting Hunter Biden's upcoming sentence, which will come on a later date.

Democrats seized on the parties' strikingly different reactions to the two cases.

"The divide here is stunning, and it's a great reminder that one political party remains committed to the rule of law and the other doesn't ? it's that simple," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass, said at a congressional hearing Tuesday.

Republicans' claim of a "weaponized Justice Department" orchestrated by the Biden administration and Democrats was undercut by Hunter Biden's guilty verdict. The case was brought by David Weiss, a Trump-appointed Justice Department special counsel, and was overseen by a Trump-appointed judge. Hunter Biden also faces another federal trial starting Sept. 5 in California for allegedly avoiding taxes.

Still, Trump and Republicans responded to Hunter Biden's guilty verdict by calling his conviction on gun charges "a distraction" from bigger crimes, pointing to unsubstantiated claims that Joe Biden profited as vice president from his son's overseas business dealings.

"As usual, the only 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' going on around here is on the other side of the aisle," McGovern said. "People are saying that Biden orchestrated the conviction of his own son in order to justify the criminal charges against Trump. That is how you think when you are in a cult."

He added: "Here's the bottom line: Republicans just can't wrap their heads around the idea that their presidential candidate, your presumptive nominee, is a convicted felon."

Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University, said he doesn't believe Hunter Biden's guilty verdict handcuffs the Biden campaign from labeling Trump a convicted felon, particularly given Republicans' continued efforts to delegitimize the legal system.

"I don't think the fact that Hunter Biden was convicted for this complicates the message," Zelizer said. "In some ways, Democrats are hoping it strengthens how Americans see the Democrats being committed to a legal process that many Republicans are essentially questioning."

The first family has stayed loyal publicly to Hunter Biden amid his legal troubles. First lady Jill Biden sat on the front row of a Delaware federal courtroom throughout his trial. "As I said last week, I am the President, but I am also a Dad," President Biden said in his statement after his son's conviction.

After giving remarks before a gun control advocacy group in Washington on Tuesday afternoon, Biden altered his schedule to travel to Wilmington, Delaware, where he embraced Hunter Biden with a hug on an airport tarmac.

Biden left Washington on Air Force One Wednesday for Italy, where he is attending a Group of Seven nations summit. The president has not taken questions from reporters about his son's conviction.

Zelizer said the enormous media consumption of Hunter Biden's guns case, along with the upcoming tax evasion trial, poses a challenge for the Biden campaign because it risks drawing attention from its argument against Trump and the former president's own legal woes.

And even though Hunter Biden's cases don't involve the president, Zelizer said Trump and Republicans "will try to muddy the waters" and argue "somehow this is evidence that the Biden family and President Biden is corrupt."

"So I do think this is something that can hurt Biden and that he needs to figure out how to overcome it," he said.

Contributing: Phillip Bailey. Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden tagging Trump a 'convicted felon' muddied by son's conviction