In a race against a famous name caller, Biden now has one in his bag: 'convicted felon'
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 reelection 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.
“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."
Dan Pfeiffer, who served as an advisor to former President Obama and is currently co-hosts Pod Save America podcast, wrote in a newsletter to his subscribers saying that Democrats should refer to Trump as a convicted felon "at every opportunity."
"Repetition is the key to a successful message and we want people to wrestle with the notion of hiring a convicted felon for the most important job in the country," he wrote.
He pointed to a Gallup poll which asked respondents about their willingness to vote for certain types of presidential candidates. Only 29% said they would vote for a candidate charged with a felony and only 23% said they would vote for someone convicted of a felony.
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
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump is now a convicted felon. Expect the Biden camp to call him that