‘Everyone is subject to the law’

Just minutes after a New York jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush money trail, President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign stressed that “no one is above the law,” while continuing to assert the importance of beating Trump not just in the court of law but in the court of public opinion as well.

“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” Biden-Harris 2024 communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement. “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. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”

President Biden, who was in Delaware commemorating the ninth anniversary of his son Beau’s death when the verdict was rendered, had no public events scheduled Thursday evening. “We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment,” said Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel’s office.

Vice President Harris — who was aboard Air Force Two en route to Los Angeles when the jury read the verdict — has not publicly commented on the decision as of Thursday night.

For weeks, those in President Biden’s orbit appeared to wrestle with how to best respond to Trump’s legal foibles, seemingly eager to emphasize Trump’s alleged criminality without playing into his campaign’s narrative that his prosecution is political in nature. Even as President Biden has ramped up his criticisms of the former president on the campaign trail, he’s so far steered clear of commenting on Trump’s legal problems — stressing instead the importance of an independent Justice Department.

Asked whether President Biden might bring up the trial during a campaign stop in Philadelphia Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted only that, “I think the President is going to be focused on the American people today.”

Still, President Biden’s silence on the issue hasn’t stopped Trump from trying to claim political interference. Trump’s team seized, for example, on a press conference organized by the Biden campaign outside the New York courthouse Tuesday, during which several officers involved in the response to the Jan. 6 insurrection and the actor Robert De Niro highlighted the ongoing trial.

“The fact is whether he’s acquitted, whether it’s a hung jury, whatever it is, he is guilty, and we all know it,” De Niro said over a chorus of pro-Trump protesters.

“Joe Biden’s campaign just conceded that this entire criminal trial against president Trump is political,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, responded in an interview with Scripps News. “The fact that they’re here outside of this criminal courthouse shows you that they know what they’re doing with this trial.”

Trump himself showed no hesitation commenting on the verdict, blasting the decision as a “disgrace” in remarks outside the courthouse shortly after the jury delivered their decision. The former president is also scheduled to participate in a press conference at Trump Tower Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

Democratic strategists who spoke with Scripps News, meanwhile, praised the Biden campaign’s approach to the case thus far, suggesting that the news of Trump’s unprecedented conviction will remain top-of-mind for voters whether or not President Biden addresses it directly.

“It’s gonna be the biggest story in the country tomorrow,” said Bob Shrum, a longtime Democratic operative who at one point worked on Joe Biden’s senate campaign. “It’s gonna keep going on; it’s gonna be in the debate in June.”

“We have 5 1/2 months to be talking about this,” echoed Simon Rosenberg, an alum of the Clinton White House and prominent Democratic commentator. “There’s plenty of time to have this conversation.”

And despite the president’s initial silence on Trump’s conviction, the Biden campaign’s use of the phrase “convicted felon or not” to describe his rival emphasizes the question they’re posing to voters: whether Americans want someone with that record in the White House. Outside advisers stressed any movement away from Trump, however small, is still a win for President Biden in a tight race.

“The election is likely going to come down to thousands of votes in key states, and we know there are plenty of voters unwilling to elect a 34-time convicted felon to the presidency,” said Eric Schultz, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Obama-Biden White House. “This will be a race where every vote counts, and there’s no question Trump is losing some today.”

As for President Biden’s personal approach, Rosenberg had this advice:

“Let the dust settle. Be careful and steady and strong,” he said. “Take your time. Be Joe Biden.”