CNN
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Things will take time to sink in, but don’t expect enthusiastic voters for Donald Trump to suddenly waver just because their candidate was convicted.
“It’s an abuse of the justice system,” Billy Pierce, a semi-retired consultant and Trump supporter from Hartsville, South Carolina, said shortly after the former president was found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his Manhattan hush-money trial. “Biden and the Democrats can’t win the 2024 election at the polls, so they’re using Trump’s prosecution to try to remove him from office. This sentence will not stand on appeal,” he added, repeating Trump’s false claim that President Joe Biden is behind the New York prosecution.
Andrew Konczek, a New Hampshire commercial fisherman and Trump supporter, responded to the ruling with a sarcastic reference to former President Bill Clinton’s personal scandal: “No direct evidence. From who? Cohen? A serial liar and disbarred attorney? That smells like bullshit,” he added, referring to the prosecution’s star witness and former Trump fixer, Michael Cohen.
Debbie Katsanos, another Trump supporter from New Hampshire, texted during jury deliberations. “I don’t see a crime,” she said. “I certainly don’t see a felony level. Unfortunately, you can’t trust the justice system when it’s politicized. … Yes, no one is above the law, and those who break the law should be held accountable. I just don’t see that in this case.”
Chris Mudd, a Trump supporter and solar power business owner in Iowa, said his support for the former president was unwavering.
“I think this sentence is bad for America,” Mudd said in a text message. “I can’t believe this is happening in our country.”
Betsy Sarcone voted for Nikki Haley in the Iowa caucuses and said late last year that she would vote for Biden if he and Trump faced off again, but her views have changed dramatically since the caucuses.
“I’ve been watching this sideshow pretty closely,” she said after the jury verdict, which made history as the first former president or presumptive party nominee to be convicted of a felony. “This does not affect my plans to vote Republican. I don’t like Donald Trump and this is a witch hunt, a trumped-up crime by a judge and district attorney that will never be upheld on appeal. … I don’t actually think this hurts Trump. People are tired of this sideshow designed to distract, avoid or gaslight people from the real problems in this country. To be clear, I’m still not a fan of Trump, but it’s clear these cases are politically motivated.”
Pierce, Konczek, Sarcone and Katsanos are joining CNN’s project to track the 2024 election through the eyes and experiences of voters who live in key battleground states or are part of key voting blocs. We’ll be checking back again as news of the historic 34-count conviction sinks in and the former president prepares to be sentenced in July, just days before he is formally nominated for president at the Republican National Convention.
But the conversations before and during the trial were eye-opening. The Trump supporters in our voter group overwhelmingly believed the cases against the former president were politically motivated, particularly the Manhattan case. (The former president has pleaded not guilty in that case and three other looming criminal cases.) Even many Republicans who are not Trump supporters share the view that he is being unfairly targeted. Biden supporters, on the other hand, are skeptical of the verdict.s They believe Trump will finally be held accountable for a lifetime of misconduct and lies.
Matt Vliotes, a conservative Christian who runs a fruit winery in Hall County, Georgia, was troubled by the allegations in the Manhattan case: that he falsified business records to hide hush payments to adult film stars purportedly to help the 2016 Trump campaign.
“It sounds crazy and it sounds like an irresponsible person and an irresponsible act,” Vlaiotes said in April. “But both candidates have a lot of issues, a lot of moral issues, so it’s very difficult for me to dislike one candidate because of what’s going on and support the other. We need to let the trial end and let the judge decide what’s right and what’s wrong, and I’ll take it from there.”
Jan Gardner, a Trump supporter who lives in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody, said before the verdict that she had lost faith in the justice system.
“Do you feel like there’s a double standard in what’s going on?” Gardner asked, referring to Hillary Clinton, who appeared to be treated differently than Trump. “I do question how much honesty and power can buy.”
Devin McIver, a Republican and likely Trump voter, said he had not followed the trial closely but would not spend “time or energy” thinking about Trump being convicted, adding in a written statement that he was “better off with Trump as president.”
As we travel, we often hear claims of unfairness, even from Republican critics of Trump.
Linda Rooney is a Haley supporter from Media, Pennsylvania, who is reluctantly voting for Trump and is struggling between voting for the former South Carolina governor or someone else.
Rooney said he had “mixed feelings” about Trump being convicted and did not believe there was “merit” in the case, but said he would like to see him in prison “unless it’s one of the many other things he’s done, like the White House records case or the January 6th incident.”
She said she hoped that if Trump was convicted, he would “drop out of the race and let someone more qualified, like Nikki Haley, run for office,” but she agreed that “I don’t think Donald Trump is going to drop out.”
Similarly, Irma Fralick, a Pennsylvania voter who voted for Haley in the primary, also sees political implications behind the Manhattan incident.
“The trials that are going on right now in New York are entirely political,” Fralick told us last week from her Montgomery County home. “I’ve looked briefly at some of them, and I don’t find them persuasive.”
Joan London, a former Trump supporter, has mixed feelings about the conviction.
She had been a Republican for more than 40 years but switched to being an independent after voting for Haley in the Pennsylvania primary in April. She left the Republican Party because of Trump.
London said he expected a “more complicated sentencing” because “President Trump did not sign all of the checks at issue and Michael Cohen has a history of lying and stealing.”
Still, London said, “This ruling does not affect my voting plans. I do not plan to vote for either Trump or Biden.”
Biden supporters celebrate, but also feel some caution
Darrell Ann Murphy offered a response typical of Biden supporters in our voter group.
“Wow! What a great day,” said Murphy, who lives in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. “He’s finally been convicted!! My friends are texting me like crazy and happy. I’ve been talking to a lot of Biden supporters.”
Pat Levin, a Biden supporter from Northampton County, said of the verdict, “This verdict confirms and strengthens my belief in the rule of law. It confirms my view of the limits of executive power. It strengthens my belief in the tenets of our democracy. They have a strong judicial system. I’m very grateful to this jury and the seriousness of their purpose.”
David Moore is a Republican from Nogales, Arizona, but he plans to vote for Biden because he cannot support Trump.
In response to the ruling, he asked: “Can I still run for office while my appeal is pending?”
Yes, a conviction would not prevent Trump from running for office.
“I haven’t thought anything through yet,” Moore said. “A lot of people around me seem pretty happy about it. I’m interested to see where this all goes.”
Jade Gray, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, served as co-chair of the College Democrats on campus. “He was historic in every way from the moment he was elected president,” she said of Trump. “Being the first president to be convicted cements that tradition. This is what accountability looks like. As the saying goes, no one is above the law, and Trump has repeatedly shown himself to be corrupt and untrustworthy.”
“I’m personally glad he was convicted and I hope there won’t be any major riots by his supporters,” said Nanette Meese, a Republican and Trump critic who lives in suburban Loudoun County, Virginia.
“I’m shocked but pleased,” said Joanna Brooks, a black voter who owns a yoga studio in suburban Milwaukee. “… It seems odd to me that this wouldn’t necessarily affect his run for president. He’s going to sue and play the victim and his supporters will probably love him even more.”
