Inside the Wisconsin state capitol on Thursday evening, Brian Schimming, the chair of the Wisconsin Republican party, decried Donald Trump’s conviction in blistering terms. The conviction was an embarrassment. The verdict, “rigged”. The legal system, akin to that of a “banana republic”.
On the sprawling lawn outside the state capitol building, in deep-blue Madison, Cheyenne Carter, a 25-year-old administrative assistant, reflected on the verdict more matter-of-factly.
“I’m glad to see him be held accountable in some criminal way,” said Carter. “I would actually enjoy seeing him go to prison, or see some type of actual prison time – unfortunately, I’m sure that won’t happen.”
Like many voters, Carter made up her mind about the former president long ago, and figures others have too.
The jury’s verdict – guilty of 34 felony charges in connection with his hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels – makes Trump the first US president, current or former, in history to be convicted in criminal court. It’s not clear that will change minds.
“I feel like people have made their opinion about him for years now, and it’s like, you can’t change it this far in,” said Carter.
Will Ford, an air traffic controller from Wisconsin, agreed. He hasn’t settled on Joe Biden and could see himself voting for a third-party candidate, but has never considered voting for Trump, whom he sees as a menace.
“He’s a different breed, a different kind of person,” said Ford. “If he gets elected, I think we’d be in trouble a little bit, because he’s for sure going straight after everybody who was against him.”
For Dave, a retiree from northern Wisconsin who preferred not to share his last name, the verdict proved what Trump has been claiming for months and what the Republican party establishment, evidenced in Schimming’s speech at the Capitol, appears to have settled on as a unifying message – that the cases against Trump are unfair and politically motivated.
“I think this will make him even greater – Trump will win in a landslide,” he said.
Like Wisconsin, Georgia is a battleground state where voters hold strong political opinions on both sides. Progressive voters around Atlanta also said they aren’t satisfied with a conviction.
“If it was a Black president, he’d be in jail. But now that it’s Donald Trump, he doesn’t go to jail,” said Kanesi Barber, 20, a college student from Decatur studying public communication.
Anthony McKenzie, 57 and from Decatur, has not been following the trial, because he made up his mind long before the verdict, he said. “I knew he was guilty … They should put him in prison. And they shouldn’t even have a convicted felon even in the White House.”
Most people said they don’t believe the verdict will change many voters’ minds.
“I still think he’s going to win and become president,” Clifford Sharpe, 34 and from Decatur, said while laughing. “I mean that we all knew he was guilty, but it is what it is, I guess … We all know he’s crooked anyways.”
Trump’s conviction represents both a long-awaited comeuppance and an affirmation that justice can hold the powerful accountable, said Judith Forster, 58 and from Pine Lake, Georgia.
“I think it shows that even if you’re higher up in politics or have lots of money, that you can be treated like everybody else,” Forster said. “To me, it’s the law being applied fairly.”
But the verdict is only likely to affect voters on the fringes of the political system, Forster said. “The base will stay the same, because they still believe the election was stolen. And they were saying that the trial was a sham. But there are those people who are on that edge. You know, they’re not quite willing to vote for a Democrat or Republican, but they can’t get behind Trump because some of the stuff’s a little too cray-cray. And so, those are the voters that this is going to affect.”
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David Pecker’s testimony was an important turning point in both the trial and public opinion, said Aukini Anderson, 56. “The National Enquirer guy who, in 2015 was already pretty conspiracy-esque, saying, ‘You know, yeah, we’ll squash all these stories, we’ll buy them up so you don’t have to worry about it, and you’ll pay us for it.’ I think that was really telling.”
Jeff Clay, 55, from Locust Grove, Georgia, first heard about Trump’s conviction when asked for his reaction.
“I think it’s a travesty,” he said. “I think that it will go to appeal and it will be immediately overturned. I think it was a partisan judge. I think it was a very partisan political process.”
Clay said he is a Trump voter and the verdict has no effect on his support. In fact, it will probably embolden Trump’s base, Clay said. “I think this could help him in some ways.”
How people react over the next few days marks a critical point in the country’s politics, said Mark Poelker, 46, a sales rep from Decatur.
“I think it’s the right verdict. I think he’s definitely guilty,” Poelker said. “I’m concerned about what’s going to happen over the next 48 to 72 hours. People are going to lose their minds on both sides of the aisle. And it’s just going to create more division, because the right is going to say it’s rigged and the left is going to say it’s certainly warranted.”
