On Thursday, a dozen people of varying ages, professions and backgrounds made a decision that could change the course of history.
After six weeks, the jury in the hush money trial of Donald Trump found a former (and potentially future) president of the United States guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Despite its historical importance, a significant number of people tuned out the first criminal trial of a former president in U.S. history. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden chose not to emphasize Trump’s legal woes, hoping to avoid further politicizing the already heavily politicized trial.
When the verdict came down, Biden's initial response was fairly minimal.
When the verdict came down, Biden's initial response was fairly minimal, consisting of a brief statement from a campaign spokesman that "no one is above the law."
NBC News recently reported that the Biden campaign is considering a more aggressive stance going forward. A small preview of that came during closing arguments, when the campaign for the first time tapped prominent supporters, including Capitol Police officers and actor Robert De Niro, to deliver comments against Trump on the courthouse steps.
Tackling the former president’s legal troubles head-on carries some built-in risk. Trump has described legal cases against him as “the greatest witch hunt of all time” (apparently forgetting there was an actual witch hunt on American soil that resulted in the deaths of 25 people). He has falsely claimed the various charges against him were orchestrated by Biden to persecute him and interfere with the November election.
If the Biden campaign chooses to lean into the conviction, Trump will no doubt seek to use that as proof that he is a victim of politics.
Biden can offset this by focusing on the jury, arguing that the decision was rendered not by political elites but by a jury of Trump’s peers. He can broaden the case to emphasize that it’s just the latest incident in a pattern of falsifying business records, painting a disturbing portrait of a man who does not believe that the rules apply to him.
This is, after all, a man whose apartment buildings were the target of a 1973 racial discrimination case, who bragged on tape about being able to grab women by their genitals, whose charitable foundation was dissolved after acknowledging it improperly coordinated with his political campaign, whose real estate training program settled class-action lawsuits over misleading practices, whose chief financial officer pleaded guilty to tax fraud and perjury, who allegedly improperly kept and stored classified documents and who peddled lies that the election was stolen, allegedly pressured officials in crucial states to deliver him a false victory and waited hours into a deadly attack on the Capitol to call off his supporters.
A large swath of Americans who tune in to politics only every four years may not realize the depth of the former president’s indecency.
The laundry list of Trump’s offenses may be old news to people plugged into politics. Still, a large swath of Americans who tune in to politics only every four years — or are too young to remember his presidency — may not realize the depth of the former president’s indecency.
How will the Biden campaign connect the guilty verdict for falsified business records to those threats? What messaging will mobilize disengaged voters to pay attention?
That’s what the Biden campaign is likely to be weighing as the dust from the conviction settles. As complex as that decision is, the opening presented by this verdict provides a rare opportunity to paint a picture of Trump’s horrifying past and connect it to how he might act given another term in the White House.
For more thought-provoking insights from Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele and Symone Sanders-Townsend, watch “The Weekend” every Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. ET on MSNBC.
