As a Manhattan jury slapped Donald Trump with 34 felony counts on Thursday afternoon, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were getting situated somewhere near their residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where they're expected to spend the weekend together. But, rest assured, they got the message.
In a statement from Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler, the keyed up news of Trump's verdict was met with the following relatively straight-faced response:
“In New York today, we saw no one is above the law. Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. But today's verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president. The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator 'on day one' and calling for our Constitution to be 'terminated' so he can regain and keep power. A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans' freedoms and fomenting political violence — and the American people will reject it this November."
Biden himself has yet to issue a statement, but Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel's office, tells CBS News, "We respect the rule of law."
