'Rap sheet:' Democratic convention puts Trump on defense over his criminal trials
WASHINGTON ? Donald Trump likes to make fun of people, but he doesn't like others who make fun of him ? especially about his criminal record.
The former president has been on the defensive during his weeklong campaign swing designed to counter the Democratic National Convention. In Chicago, speaker after speaker have mocked the 2024 GOP nominee on any number of topics, from his seeming obsession with crowd sizes to what they call his "weirdness" to, especially, his historic legal problems and criminal conviction in the New York hush money case.
"Did you see Barack Hussein Obama last night take little shots?" Trump asked supporters Wednesday during a national security speech at the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame, referring to his predecessor in the White House. “He was very nasty last night. I try and be nice to people, you know? But it's a little tough when they get personal.”
During his convention speech in praise of new Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, Obama taunted Trump's entire political career as "a constant stream of gripes and grievances that’s actually gotten worse now that he’s afraid of losing to Kamala. ... The childish nicknames and crazy conspiracy theories and weird obsession with crowd size ... it just goes on and on."
Other convention speakers ? a few Republicans as well as Democrats ? have zeroed in on Trump's many legal problems, particularly his conviction in May in the New York hush money case. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said that "Kamala Harris has a resume ? Donald Trump has a rap sheet." In the United Center, convention attendees took selfies with Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who testified against his former boss as a star witness during the Manhattan trial.
Trump has said his advisers want him to stay on policy and avoid personal attacks, but he hasn't always taken their advice. "I don't know ... my advisers are fired," Trump joked in his North Carolina speech. "Nah, we'd rather keep it on policy ... but sometimes it's hard when you're attacked."
'Convicted felon'
Trump's aides said he objects to being called a "convicted felon," but he also isn't particularly surprised.
As far as Trump allies are concerned, the Democratic convention's legal attacks are a continuation of what they called the "weaponization" of the judicial system. They claimed, without proof, that law enforcement officials pursued four sets of indictments against the former president in 2023 for the purpose of using them against him during the 2024 election campaign.
The Chicago convention boils down to "more unfounded personal attacks from washed-up Democrats because they don’t have any real solutions for the problems everyday Americans face," said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.
In a public safety speech Tuesday in Michigan, Trump accused Democrats of being lax on law enforcement and added, "They go after guys like me, but they don't go after people that kill people."
As for the election, Trump and aides said, they don't think his prosecutions will play a large role for voters over the next 2? months. They said many voters agree with him that the cases are political.
Said Cheung: "People know it’s a weaponized justice system to meddle in an election."
'Don't get personal'
Beyond the legal issues, in public and in private, Trump and aides criticized what they described as the media's "glowing" coverage of Harris and her convention.
At one point in North Carolina, Trump roughed up his own political advisers for urging him to stick to policy and "don't get personal," even though his opponents are often personal with him.
"They're getting personal all night long, these people," Trump people. "Do I still have to stick to policy?"
Coming back to the topic later, Trump then polled the North Carolina crowd on whether he should get "personal" with his Democratic critics; the crowd cheered loudly in the affirmative, although the former president has engaged in personal insults for decades.
Though Trump and aides say they are not concerned about the political implications of the former president's legal issues, many pollsters believe they will hurt the Republican nominee with swing voters.
On Sept. 18 ? little more than a week after his first debate with Harris ? Trump faces sentencing in the hush money case. In late May, a New York jury convicted Trump of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide payments designed to cover up a past liaison with an adult film star. (In her speech, Crockett called Trump “a career criminal, with 34 felonies, two impeachments and one porn star.")
New York Judge Juan Merchan could conceivably sentence him to prison, though it his highly unlikely Trump would be locked up anytime soon. He is appealing the verdict and would remain free pending that appeal.
Trump has denounced the prosecution for months, telling supporters Wednesday that "they want to put you in jail for nothing."
Other cases
Trump and his aides also said that, if anything, they believe they are winning on the legal front.
At one time, Trump faced the prospect of four trials before Election Day on Nov. 5. Though the New York case did move forward, Trump faces no trials during the stretch run of the presidential campaign, although there could be some pretrial activity.
In early July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that former presidents are immune from prosecution for "official" acts. That landmark decision that has pushed back a federal case charging Trump with trying to steal the 2020 election from Biden, actions that led to the pro-Trump insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
A federal judge must now decide whether the allegations against Trump involve official acts. That could require hearings in September and or October that would become part of the campaign.
A similar election theft case is pending in the state of Georgia, but it has been pushed back because of pretrial maneuvering.
Trump's legal team managed to get a fourth cases against him dismissed. A Florida-based federal judge tossed an indictment accusing Trump of mishandling classified documents, although the government has appealed that decision.
'Lock him up'
Former first lady Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 election to Trump, combined mockery with a legal critique during her convention speech, reminding fellow Democrats that Trump fell asleep during parts of the hush money trial. "And when he woke up," Clinton said. "he made his own kind of history ? the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions."
At one point, Democratic delegates chanted "lock him up," a variation of the chant that Trump backers used against Clinton during the 2016 campaign.
Trump's response? He said he could have had Clinton thrown in jail when he was president, but he chose not to.
Trump's most critical response was directed at a lesser-known politician: Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York.
"Adversarial relationships are not good in politics!" Trump said Wednesday on his Truth Social platform, never mind that he has launched some of the most venomous attacks on opponents in political history. In this case, Trump labeled Hochul "the nastiest speaker" at the convention's opening night.
In her speech on Monday night, Hochul said Trump does not reflect American values. “Donald Trump was born a New Yorker," she said, "but ended up a fraud, a philanderer and a felon."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democratic convention puts Trump on defense over legal troubles
