Joe Biden's ‘convicted felon’ attack on Donald Trump now boomerangs on his son, Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden's recent conviction on gun charges complicates President Biden's strategy of labeling Trump a 'convicted felon' in the 2024 election.
“The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive,” Robert A. Heinlein's voice now really hits hard US President Joe Biden.
After Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts in his New York hush-money trial last month, President Biden adopted a new moniker for his presumptive Republican nominee: “convicted felon” and now that applies and haunts his son, Hunter Biden. What an irony!
“For the first time in American history, a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency,” Biden told supporters at a June 3 fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut.
And now the clock is turned with the recent conviction of Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, on three gun charges by a federal court jury in Delaware. This marks a historic first, as no child of a sitting president has ever been convicted before.
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The guilty verdict could potentially complicate the Biden campaign's strategy of leveraging Trump’s conviction in the 2024 election.
Biden's reelection campaign and congressional Democrats have consistently echoed the president's characterization of Trump as a “convicted felon” and “convicted criminal.” Yet, following Hunter Biden’s conviction, branding Trump a criminal might now invite increased scrutiny regarding Biden's own family.
Biden campaign will continue with the ‘convicted felon’
A source close to the Biden campaign told USA Today that they would not hesitate to continue calling Trump a “convicted felon,” despite Hunter Biden's conviction.
The source insisted that Americans can distinguish between the verdicts of Trump, who is actively running for president, and Hunter Biden, who remains a private citizen. But its is evident that Trump’s campaign will likely exploit Hunter Biden’s conviction to counter the attacks on Trump’s criminal record.
Republican strategist Scott Jennings suggested that Hunter Biden's guilty verdict might provide Trump with a potent counter-argument during the first of two televised debates with Biden on June 27, “Especially if Joe Biden goes in on repeatedly calling Donald Trump a convicted felon, trying to get under his skin.”
“It might give Joe Biden some pause on how hard he goes at the debate, because he's going to have to deal with a retort,” he added.