'Reckless': President Joe Biden blasts Donald Trump for calling guilty trial verdict 'rigged'
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said Friday it was “reckless” and “dangerous” for Donald Trump to attack the guilty verdict in his New York hush money trial.
“It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden said at the White House, before announcing a new Gaza cease-fire proposal. “The justice system should be respected and we should never allow anyone to tear it down.”
Trump was convicted Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide the reimbursement of a payment to silence a porn actress before the 2016 election. Sentencing is scheduled July 11.
In a speech at Trump Tower on Friday, the former president railed against Judge Juan Merchan, witnesses in the trial and the result. Trump argued without evidence that the Biden administration was behind the prosecution in state court to hinder his likely Republican opponent in the Nov. 5 election.
“It was a rigged trial,” Trump said.
In a fundraising email, Trump called himself a “political prisoner.”
Biden didn’t respond to a reporter’s question about Trump calling himself a political prisoner.
His national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called Biden “evil” in a social media post.
Biden said Trump had a chance to defend himself, but was found guilty by a jury of 12 American citizens who listened to five weeks of evidence. Trump has vowed to appeal, which Biden said was his right.
“They found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts,” Biden said of the jury. “Now he will be given the opportunity as he should to appeal that decision just like everybody else has that opportunity. That’s how the American system of justice works.”