Reporter’s Donald Trump question stops Joe Biden in his tracks
Joe Biden was stopped in his tracks as a reporter shouted a question about Donald Trump while he exited a press conference at the White House.
US President Joe Biden was stopped in his tracks as a reporter shouted a question about Donald Trump while he exited a press conference at the White House.
“Donald Trump refers to himself as a political prisoner and blames you directly,” the reporter said, causing Biden to stop and turn around.
“What’s your response to that, sir?”
The 81-year-old president stared at the reporters and smirked in silence.
She pressed: “Do you think the conviction will have an impact on the campaign?”
He slowly began walking away again before briefly stopping as if to change his mind, and then continued on to exit the room.
“We’d love to hear your thoughts, sir,” said the reporter, before another asked, “Should he be on the ballot, sir?”
Footage of the interaction has gone viral on social media, with the clip being shared hundreds of thousands of times.
Trump, 77, has become the first former US President to be convicted of a crime this week after he was found guilty on all 34 counts of fraud by falsifying business records to cover up payments of $200,000 ($US130,000) to porn star Stormy Daniels.
In America a convicted felon can run for president. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention, when the party will officially nominate him for president.
At the beginning of Biden’s press conference on Friday (local time), where he was announcing a major new peace proposal for Gaza, he addressed Trump’s conviction for the first time.
He emphasised the trial was completely handled at the state level with the verdict handed down by a jury.
“It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden said.
“Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years, and it literally is a cornerstone of America. Our justice system should be respected. We should never allow anyone to tear it down. It’s as simple as that.”
He acknowledged Trump’s right to appeal.
Addressing media outside a New York courthouse on Thursday (local time), Trump called the decision – which a 12-person jury decided unanimously after a six-week trial – a “disgrace”.
“This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt,” he said. “It’s a rigged trial. A disgrace.”
He then spoke outside Trump Tower the next day where he again called it “rigged” and a “scam”, and announced he would appeal.
From court to campaign
Although the verdict does not prevent Trump from continuing his election bid, it does cast the already tense contest into even more unpredictable waters.
Trump’s campaign immediately made a fundraising pitch after the verdict featuring a picture of the 77-year-old and the claim: “I am a political prisoner!”
According to the campaign, $52.8 million in donations flooded in, crashing the website.
“From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed,” the campaign said.
In addition to the New York case, Trump faces three far more serious criminal indictments over his attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden and hoarding of top-secret documents at his home in Florida.
Those cases, however, are not likely to go to trial before the November election.
The hush money trial
Trump was accused of 34 counts of fraud by falsifying business records to cover up payments of $200,000 ($US130,000) to porn star Stormy Daniels.
It was alleged Trump wanted to buy her silence about an alleged extramarital sexual encounter which was in danger of becoming public knowledge in the run up to the 2016 US Presidential election.
Paying to keep stories quiet isn’t illegal but falsifying business records is.
The prosecution attempted to persuade the jury that the payments were effectively electoral interference, which is a more serious crime.
Trump denied a sexual encounter with Ms Daniels took place and denied all the charges.
The former president spent much of the trial railing against what he perceived as the its unjustness but he was also grumpy about the temperature in the Manhattan courtroom which he commented on multiple times.
Judge Merchan put a gag order on Trump preventing him from maligning witnesses or jurors as there were concerns it could disrupt the trial.
Earlier in May, Judge Merchan said Trump has violated that order on nine occasions and fined him $13,856 ($US9000) with a warning he could go to jail if he kept ignoring the order.
Ms Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, testified she met Mr Trump when the adult film company she was working for sponsored a golf tournament at Lake Tahoe, California, in July 2006.
She was encouraged to meet Trump at his suite.
The actor said she went to the toilet at one point and when she returned Trump was on the bed in boxer shorts and a T-shirt.
“The intent was pretty clear,” she told the jury.
Ms Daniels said the alleged sex with Trump was “brief” and he did not wear a condom which was a “concern”.
The defence tried to discredit Ms Daniel’s testimony claiming a porn star wouldn’t have been surprised by seeing a semi naked man on a bed.
“If I came out of the bathroom and saw an older man in his underwear that I wasn’t expecting to see there, yeah (I’d be surprised),” she replied.
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She was also accused of lying about having sex with Trump to profit from it.
“Nobody would ever want to publicly say that,” she retorted.
– with AFP
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