June 3 (UPI) — President Joe Biden told a fundraising audience in Connecticut on Monday night that Donald Trump is attacking the U.S. justice system to convince the public it’s rigged now that he is the first American president to be convicted of a crime.
On Friday, a New York jury found Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments made to an adult film actress to keep their alleged affair from the voting public.
The former president throughout the trial attacked the judge and prosecution and tried to blame the case on Biden. Following his conviction, Trump continued to claim his innocence and called the verdict a “disgrace” and the trial “rigged.”
On Monday night, Biden told the crowd at the Greenwich, Connecticut, fundraising event that the election campaign had entered “uncharted territory” because “for the first time in American history, a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency.”
“But, as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice,” he said, stating the former president wants the American public to believe it is as well.
“It’s reckless and dangerous for anyone to say that’s rigged,” he said.
Biden said something “snapped” in Trump after he lost the 2020 election and “it’s literally driving him crazy.”
“Just listen to his rantings,” Biden said, highlighting several of Trump’s incendiary comments, including the former president stating in a December town hall in Iowa that he will not be a dictator “except for Day One” in order to respond to the border and “drill, drill drill.”
Trump was responding to a question from Fox News’ Sean Hannity on whether he would abuse his power for retribution if re-elected.
“What kind of man is this?” Biden asked.
Biden spoke for about 20 minutes during the fundraiser, in which he also touted accomplishments of his administration, including putting a $35 cap on insulin for seniors and that if re-elected to a second term it will be offered to all Americans.
But Trump was the focus of his speech, along with what Biden claims are the former president’s threats to democracy, while framing himself as the one who will uphold the U.S. principle.
He also blamed Trump for repeal of federal protections of abortion with the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade in June 2022 and that he will reinstate it.
Biden also lambasted Trump for allegedly calling U.S. soldiers who died in war “losers and suckers.”
“This guy does not deserve to be president, whether or not I’m running,” Biden said.
