Donald Trump’s A Convicted Felon. That’s Not A Selling Point.
Democrats shouldn’t downplay Trump’s crimes.
Donald Trump is a convicted felon, and — I can’t believe I have to say this — that fact does not make him a stronger candidate. A new Morning Consult poll shows that 54 percent of registered voters support the guilty verdict, compared to just 34 percent who seem to think Trump’s above the law.
Yet Democrats are skittish to pounce on this obvious political liability. President Joe Biden sent me an email this weekend lamenting Trump’s post-conviction fundraising haul.
You may have seen some news this week about Donald Trump’s trial in New York. But, what you may not know is that his campaign received $52.8 million in online donations in the 24 hours following the verdict coming down. $52.8 million. That’s no joke.
“You may have seen the news this week?”
Democrats have complained that too many Americans get their news from social media. It’s why so many people think the nation’s economy is sepia-toned 1930s newsreel footage of bread lines. It’s politically unwise to just assume that voters know that Trump is a convicted felon. Besides, Republicans were never subtle about Bill Clinton’s late 1990s legal challenges. We heard about Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky in graphic detail. Democrats should never stop reminding voters that a jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to cover up his payment to an adult film star for her silence about their extramarital affair. This was a deliberate effort to illegally influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. The result is that Trump stacked the Supreme Court with three Federalist Society-approved, far-right radicals who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
If Republicans are furious that Trump was convicted, Democrats should at least express righteous revulsion that Republicans are about to nominate a career criminal for president (again). Yet somehow they think it’s a good message for Biden to say, “Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”
No, the Republican National Convention isn’t until July 15, four days after Trump’s sentencing. The president of the United States and the Democratic Party should collectively demand that Republicans choose a different nominee who’s still awful but not a felon. According to the Morning Consult poll, 49 percent of independents and 15 percent of Republicans said Trump should end his campaign because of the conviction. Democrats should keep working on that number.
I’m aware that Republicans and anti-anti-Trump pundits will claim that this is evidence that Trump’s prosecution was politically motivated, but Republicans consistently lie. That shouldn’t make Democrats conflict averse. It’s absurd that the institutionalists who worry about killing the filibuster or expanding the Supreme Court seem sanguine about a felon on the presidential ballot. That might set a more dangerous precedent than passing legislation through a simple majority.
During the Republican primary, Nikki Haley frequently argued that Democrats wanted to run against Trump. She pointed to polls showing her crushing Biden in swing states, compared to a much tighter Trump/Biden rematch. Democrats could leverage her words, especially since she’s now endorsed the felonious skunk.
“Many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump privately dread him,” Haley said in February. “They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be for our party. They’re just too afraid to say it out loud. Well, I’m not afraid to say the hard truths out loud.” (Haley would later fearlessly surrender her dignity to MAGA.)
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who supported Haley’s campaign, now claims that she was wrong when she said that Americans wouldn’t vote for a convicted criminal. When Republicans are running from their own, once sensible remarks, Democrats should press that advantage, not pretend it doesn’t exist.
Why are Democrats so afraid?
It appears that the Democratic strategy is to let Trump’s conviction speak for itself, which is the political equivalent to roller-skating over a floor carpeted with banana peels. Democrats are remaining silent while Republicans openly denounce the verdict, viciously attack Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Judge Juan Merchan and his daughter, and smear the jury of average citizens who found Trump guilty on 34 counts. Instead of passionately defending his New York colleagues and constituents, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries feebly posts, “America is a nation built upon the rule of law. The jury has spoken and carefully rendered a decision. Responsible leadership requires the verdict to be respected.” This sounds like what you say when a member of your own party is convicted and you’re trying to calm down your base. (That’s what Republican Senate candidate Larry Hogan tried, with much backlash.)
Jeffries’ muted response pales next to House Speaker’s Mike Johnson’s impassioned vows to investigate Bragg and Merchan and overturn Trump’s conviction with a little help from his Supreme Court friends. Democrats shouldn’t politely shake their heads but call out Johnson’s unhinged, anti-democratic rhetoric. Democrats should understand by now that Republicans aren’t simply having a tantrum. They are laying the foundation for another violent coup attempt if Trump loses. Democrats who say they don’t want to “politicize” the verdict are delusional. It’s already politicized. Republicans are torching the criminal justice and democracy itself. Democrats can’t avoid this fight.
MSNBC host Jen Psaki, who was previously Biden’s White House press secretary, suggested on her show Thursday that it’s not “Biden’s style” to remind people that his opponent is a convicted felon. The concern is that it “feeds” MAGA’s BS narrative about a political prosecution. However, Democrats wind up looking worse when they act as if it’s no big deal. Trump’s conviction is only further proof that he’s a criminal scumbag. The stakes are further elevated because Trump and his GOP capos have sworn vengeance against those who dared hold him legally accountable.
Psaki claims that Democrats want the election to be about abortion rights and not Trump’s overall scuzziness, but this willfully ignores reality. Besides, if your political opponent is an active threat to abortion rights, which Trump is, then it’s actually a good thing that he’s also a convicted felon. This is basic politics. Democrats should hammer the point that what Republicans absurdly dismiss as a “paper crime” is what helped put Trump in the White House. That is why American women are free to fly upside-down flags but not access reproductive care.
Democrats’ public actions and rhetoric should match their relentless fundraising emails warning that “democracy is at stake.” This includes the president. Establishment Democrats might recoil at a true street fight strategy, but they will ultimately follow Biden’s example. He needs to set the tone. Republicans want to normalize Trump. Democrats shouldn’t help.
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That is why American women are free to fly upside-down flags but not access reproductive care.*
*Offer only open to Martha-Ann Alito and is good at all primary residences and vacation homes in the country.
Trump was a national loser even before he became a convicted felon. There is simply no possible way that this will help him.
All Democratic pols EXCEPT Biden should keep hammering hard on the criminal record. Biden should continue to simply state that the justice system worked fairly and a jury did good work.