President Biden responded to urgings from Democrats to go head-to-head with former President Donald J. Trump, who was convicted in a New York hush-payment case, on Monday night as he held a big fundraiser in Connecticut for his reelection campaign and party.
Biden blasted his rival at a reception in Greenwich, telling a group of supporters that included Connecticut’s governor and two sitting senators that the campaign had entered “uncharted territory” after a jury on Thursday convicted Trump on all 34 felony charges.
He said Trump had cemented his honor as the first former president and convicted felon to seek the presidency.
“But disturbing as that is, what’s more harmful is the all-out attack that Donald Trump is waging on the American justice system,” Biden said, according to reporters on hand to cover the event.
Biden called Trump “out of control” and said he was undermining another democratic institution in his fierce rebuke after the verdict.
“It’s reckless and dangerous to say an election was rigged just because you don’t like the results,” he said.
Responding to a request for comment Monday night, a Trump campaign spokesman attacked Biden in a statement, saying the president was trying to divert attention from his son Hunter’s federal trial on firearms charges, which began Monday.
Biden’s rant at a reception hosted by former HBO CEO Richard Plepler marked a notable shift in his stance on Trump’s guilty verdict by a Manhattan jury.
Asked about the ruling by reporters at the White House on Friday, Biden smiled, commented on the Gaza war, then walked away quietly. His reluctance to speak on the issue is consistent with his overall strategy of trying to avoid personally engaging with Trump on his legal troubles.
Biden’s remarks at the fundraiser echoed parts of a televised statement from the White House on Friday before outlining his administration’s latest efforts to end Israel’s war with Hamas. Still, Democrats have been urging him to be more aggressive.
Trump’s criminal status wasn’t the only thing Biden attacked during the fundraising drive.
Biden referenced a time four years ago when, during a White House coronavirus briefing, Trump suggested bleach could be used to treat the illness, a medical advice that was quickly dismissed as false.
“He must have had it pumped into his brain,” Biden said in a representative interview.
