Part of President Joe Biden’s argument against another four years under Donald Trump will be highlighting the former president’s new status as a convicted felon during the Atlanta debate on Thursday. The president’s reelection campaign has made clear that a central argument and strategy at CNN’s general election debate will focus on the 34 felony charges against Trump.

Biden Campaign’s Key Argument

Biden campaign co-chair Mitch Landrieu emphasized that the ‘American people have to sit’ with the fact that the presumptive Republican nominee is a convicted felon. ‘I’ll let the President say what he’s going to say. But the fact of the matter is that the sky is blue sometimes and Donald Trump is a convicted felon,’ Landrieu told NBC host Peter Alexander on Sunday.

Potential Backfire

However, the argument could backfire as most polls find Republicans – and even many independent voters – are undeterred by the outcome of the Manhattan hush money case so far. Iowa voter Donald Share, 63, told the Des Moines Register last week that he is definitely voting for Trump due to his criminal conviction. ‘His convictions on these charges are part of the reason my mind is made up,’ said Share. ‘The more they try to get him out of the picture, the stronger they make him,’ he added. ‘I, for one, believe that the charges are bogus.’

Landrieu’s Perspective

Landrieu still argues that the case will impact Trump without Biden needing to point it out at the debate. ‘The person who wants to be president has to go sit with his probation officer before he actually goes to the debate,’ the campaign co-chair lamented. ‘And so it is just a fact. But it’s not just to call Donald Trump a convicted felon. It goes to his behavior and it goes to his character.’

Debate Performance

Landrieu also claims that how Biden, 81, performs on stage Thursday against Trump, 78, doesn’t really make a difference for the trajectory of the election. ‘I expect President Biden to do an excellent job just like he did the last few debates. It really doesn’t matter how Donald Trump shows up,’ he insisted. ‘People are going to know that he’s a twice impeached convicted felon who has been found to have defamed somebody, sexually abused somebody and going bankrupt six times.’

Trump’s Legal Troubles

Trump was found guilty at the end of May by a Manhattan jury on 34 felony counts related to his hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. There are still three other outstanding criminal cases against the former president – one in Washington, D.C., one in Fulton County, Georgia, and one in Florida.

Polls and Public Opinion

After Trump’s guilty verdict, the former president still leads Biden by just one point in a hypothetical 2024 match-up. Only 40 percent say Trump’s conviction won’t affect how they cast their ballot in a post-conviction Emerson poll. Still, more than a quarter (27 percent) say that Trump’s guilty verdict actually makes them more likely to want to vote for him for president. And 33 percent say it makes them less likely to support him.

Politics

TDPel Media

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