Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet.
Randall Eliason/New York Times:
There is most likely a chapter yet to be written in this case. I remain something of a skeptic when it comes to whether these convictions will survive long term — although I’m the first to admit I’ve already been proved wrong once…
But during this trial, the prosecutors made a convincing case. They demonstrated why, as part of a successful, larger conspiracy to criminally interfere with the presidential election, these false business records really mattered. They told a compelling story, and they told it well.
Donald Trump was convicted by a jury of his peers, unanimously, after hearing the evidence against him.That carries far more weight than talking heads opining about the case (especially the lawyers, with all due respect).
The journalists who waxed eloquent about how Michael Cohen’s credibility was “hammered” by Todd Blanche were also pretty much wrong, in at least missing the forest for the trees. It wasn’t what the jury was focused on.
Not everyone got it wrong, of course. But there were plenty who did. And I suspect those folks are underestimating the net effect come November, including clumsy attempts by Republicans to mitigate the damage (watch them attack Larry Hogan in MD).
Before you read the string of stories suggesting President Biden hit Donald Trump hard on his being a convicted felon, read this from Axios:
Biden goes all-in on calling Trump a “convicted felon”
Why it matters: The broadside from Biden’s campaign — in a press release chiding Trump for his “unhinged” rant earlier in the day — put President Biden in the same camp as many Democrats who are now mocking the ex-president.
- It also marked a departure from Biden’s approach in remarks at the White House hours earlier, when he danced around the “convicted felon” label while criticizing Trump’s attack on the U.S. justice system.
- It’s “reckless, dangerous, and irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden said then.
- “Now, he’ll be given the opportunity, as he should, to appeal that decision, just like everyone else has that opportunity. That’s how the American system of justice works.”
Reed Galen/”The Home Front” on Substack:
Democrats :: Unload on Trump and MAGA NOW
He’s Weak and Weakened. Pour it On.
Now is the time to attack, attack, attack. We cannot and must not worry about whether this will ‘fire up the MAGA base.’ They’re always angry and aggrieved. What we want is them angry on our terms, not on theirs.
Greg Sargent/The New Republic:
Trump’s Stunning Guilty Verdict Shatters His Aura of Invincibility
His conviction on 34 felony counts is powerful new information, and we should hold institutional Democrats responsible if they don’t use it—ruthlessly and effectively.
He was getting away with all of it. Again.
Until he didn’t.
The force of this truth should inform how Democrats proceed now. Democratic operatives sometimes say there’s no sense in talking about Trump’s criminal trials, because his “negatives” are “baked in,” as the grating consultant-speak has it. Indeed, according to a source familiar with the situation, the Biden campaign has no plans for any paid ads on the verdict. The campaign did put out a powerful statement about the verdict, and it’s somewhat understandable that Biden himself is cautious about commenting on Trump’s legal travails, given that his own Justice Department is prosecuting Trump.
But that can’t set the tone for the whole party. Other Democratic groups and elected officials must do all they can to make sure that voters know about this conviction, and, importantly, that Republican lawmakers—who are running for reelection as we speak—lined up like little robots to savage the justice system, all to put Trump above accountability and the law.
After all, Republicans are in a terrible trap. Look what happened when Larry Hogan—who is running for Senate in deep blue Maryland—dared to say the absolute minimum of what’s responsible here, that the system should be respected…
Rex Huppke/USA Today:
Trump, guilty on all counts, carries a new label into 2024 election: Convicted felon
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee will, of course, wail endlessly about the injustice brought on him by a jury of his peers. He’ll attack the jurors, the judge, the district attorney.
It’s an apt development for Trump, who has spent his life evading accountability, and for Republicans who allowed a transparent con artist to walk in and run roughshod over any modicum of decency their formerly Grand Old Party may have possessed.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee will, of course, wail endlessly about the injustice brought on him by a jury of his peers. He’ll attack the jurors, the judge, the district attorney, the entire U.S. justice system, Biden, all Democrats, the news media, any relative you have who has ever cast even the mildest aspersions at him. The blast radius for his blame-casting will be global.
And some will buy it. The brainwashed MAGA faithful will continue to see their hero as a persecuted, almost Christ-like figure. The lickspittle lawmakers who’ve excised their integrity like it was a cancer and bent the knee to Trump will continue pushing lies on his behalf.
But the remaining sane Republicans will know how damaging this verdict is to Trump and to their chances of winning back the White House. And they will have to choke on the fact that the mess they’re facing – heading into the Republican National Convention with a convicted felon atop the ticket – is entirely their party’s own fault.
David Rothkopf/Daily Beast:
This Is How Biden Should Use Trump’s Conviction Against Him
Democrats should focus on Trump being a convicted felon as part of a broader narrative around his shameful character—and the threat another Trump presidency would represent.
In this instance, both sides of this debate are correct.
It is appropriate and also necessary for Democratic office holders, especially the president and those directly associated with him, to offer the subdued reaction they did. First, because that’s how senior officials who have sworn an oath to the Constitution traditionally react to such matters in the judiciary… and therefore the remarks stand in stark contrast to the orchestrated litany of GOP attacks on the rule of law in America that emanated from every corner of the GOP during the hours immediately following the verdict.
Next, it is vitally important that the White House underscore through its actions that as in all judicial matters it plays a hands-off role—that this trial and all other trials involving Trump are not in any way being interfered with for political reasons despite GOP lies to the contrary. (The fact that the Hunter Biden trial begins next week neatly and compellingly provides evidence of that fact.)
Finally, as the commentator in the Huffington Post noted, there is no need for the president, the vice president, or the White House to emphasize that Trump is a convicted felon because it is a label that has been forever affixed to his name. Those who don’t care, won’t care. But for those to whom it matters, the news was so massive that it cannot be ignored and it will not be forgotten.
Brian Beutler/Off Message:
Democrats Need To Join The Fight Over The Trump Verdict Now
Their unfathomable stumbling in response to Trump’s felony conviction has been an aha! moment for many liberals, and creates an opportunity to set the party straight.
Per Politico, the party’s divided between “establishment figures [who] are preaching caution and sobriety and have no evident plans to immediately capitalize on the historic jury decision to benefit President Joe Biden, and “prominent officials and operatives [who] see the unanimous verdict as a political gift and are incredulous that the party would not use it as a cudgel.”
Among those operatives is former Obama White House adviser
, who tweeted, “I wrote about HOW Dems (not named Joe Biden) should talk about Trump’s conviction. I didn’t realize there was a debate about IF Dems should talk about it. That’s nuts.
Will Bunch/Philadelphia Inquirer:
How 12 regular folks, an immigrant judge and a focused DA finally laid Trump low, after the elites and their system failed.
It took the untainted eyes of 12 everyday people — a software engineer, a security engineer, a physical therapist, a salesman, an investment banker, a businessman, a product manager, a retired wealth manager, two lawyers and two educators — to reveal what “the system” has been refusing to see for decades. That the streaking Emperor of Fifth Avenue had been wearing no clothes the whole time. And that the felonies Trump committed on that famed street, at Trump Tower, should not go unpunished.
These were the dozen regular folks who comprised the jury that made American history at 5:10 p.m. on May 30, 2024, when they found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his 2016 pre-election hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up their affair — the first-ever felony conviction of a U.S. ex-president.
And a hat tip to Jill Lawrence, who collected many of these pieces.
#swing #voter #election
+ There are no comments
Add yours