Joe Biden calls Donald Trump a ‘convicted felon’ who is unfit for office
- US president weighs in on Donald Trump’s guilty verdict, publicly calling his election rival a ‘convicted felon’ for the first time
- Until now, the Democrat’s campaign has been treading a fine line on how far to go in using Trump’s conviction to attack him
US President Joe Biden for the first time called former president Donald Trump a “convicted felon” who poses a higher threat to the United States if he wins another term – the most biting attack on his opponent’s legal troubles to date.
Trump became the first US president to be convicted of a crime last week when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
“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 a small group of donors on Monday during a fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut.
“But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice,” Biden said, adding it was “reckless and dangerous” to say the justice system is rigged because Trump and his allies don’t like the outcome.
Biden until now had largely stayed away from addressing Trump’s guilty verdict to avoid creating the impression he was politicising the process, according to Biden campaign officials.
