President Biden referred to Donald Trump as a “convicted felon” on Monday for the first time since the former president was found guilty in his Manhattan hush money trial.
Biden, 81, made the remark during a Greenwich, Conn., fundraiser, where he also accused his 2024 opponent of running for president because he is “worried about preserving his freedoms.”
“For the first time in American history a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency,” the commander in chief told donors at the home of former HBO CEO Richard Plepler.
While the Biden campaign has used the term “convicted felon” in reference to Trump several times since the May 30 guilty verdict, the president had yet to utter the words himself.
“But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice,” Biden went on, according to a pool report.
The president argued that the “threat” Trump poses in a potential second term is “greater” than in his first term because he is looking to “exact for revenge” for his defeat in 2020 and subsequent criminal indictments.
“Something snapped in him when he lost in 2020,” Biden said. “He can’t accept he lost and it is literally driving him crazy.”
“He is clearly unhinged.”
“Now after his criminal convictions it’s clear he’s worried about preserving his freedoms,” Biden claimed.
Biden’s fundraiser comes as Trump – boosted by the guilty verdict – has received a massive influx of cash for his campaign in recent days.
The Trump campaign said it raked in nearly $53 million in donations – about one-third coming from fist-time donors – in the 24 hours after Thursday’s verdict.
In total, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee claim to have raised a combined $141 million in May for the former president’s third White House run.
“We are moved by the outpouring of support for President Donald J. Trump. The American people saw right through Crooked Joe Biden’s rigged trial, and sent Biden and Democrats a powerful message – the REAL verdict will come on November 5th,” Trump campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.
Democratic Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and former Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) were among those in attendance for the Biden fundraiser.
In response to Biden’s comments, senior Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller told The Post that the president “will do anything to distract” from first son Hunter Biden’s federal gun trial in Delaware, which started on Monday.
“Crooked Joe Biden will do anything to distract from Hunter’s trial and the fact his family has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine,” he said. “The Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit.”
