Evening summary
It was a day of ongoing reactions to yesterday’s historic conviction of former president Donald Trump on 34 felony counts. Here are some of today’s key takeaways, and don’t forget: there are still 158 days remaining before the 2024 presidential election.
In a rambling speech that made plenty of work for fact-checkers, Donald Trump blamed his criminal conviction on the political machinations of Joe Biden and his other Democratic opponents and vowed to appeal the verdict.
President Joe Biden announced a surprise afternoon speech about a completely unrelated topic: the Middle East. In his remarks, Biden urged Hamas to accept a new peace deal he said Israel has put on the table, and said: “It’s time for this war to be over.”
Biden also personally criticized Trump’s attacks on the legal system, warning that it was “reckless”, “dangerous” and “irresponsible” for people to say that the trial had been rigged “just because they don’t like the verdict”.
The Trump campaign announced a record-setting haul from donors following his conviction. An early Reuters poll found that a large majority of Republican voters continued to support Trump after his criminal conviction, with only 10% of Republican registered voters saying they were less likely to vote for Trump as a result of the verdict, though Reuters noted that even a small Republican shift away from Trump could be significant in a close race.
On social media and pro-Trump websites, some Trump supporters made threats of violence, and others posted photographs of the upside-down American flag that has been adopted as a pro-Trump protest symbol. Particularly notable, and concerning, were the threats against Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s hush-money trial.
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Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, has died at age 86
The former first lady Michelle Obama has shared a tribute to her mother, which includes details of the time she spent living in the White House, as an informal first grandmother to the Obama children.
My mom Marian Robinson was my rock, always there for whatever I needed. She was the same steady backstop for our entire family, and we are heartbroken to share she passed away today. We wanted to offer some reflections on her remarkable life: https://t.co/F7T6q625PC
— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) May 31, 2024
Among the details in the Obama family’s tribute to her:
The trappings and glamour of the White House were never a great fit for Marian Robinson. ‘Just show me how to work the washing machine and I’m good,’ she’d say. Rather than hobnobbing with Oscar winners or Nobel laureates, she preferred spending her time upstairs with a TV tray, in the room outside her bedroom with big windows that looked out at the Washington Monument. The only guest she made a point of asking to meet was the Pope. Over those eight years, she made great friends with the ushers and butlers, the folks who make the White House a home. She’d often sneak outside the gates to buy greeting cards at CVS, and sometimes another customer might recognize her. ‘You look like Michelle’s mother,’ they’d say. She’d smile and reply, ‘Oh, I get that a lot.’
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