President Joe Biden alluded to Donald Trump’s rebuke of his hush money conviction on Friday, calling the former president’s reaction “reckless,” “dangerous,” as well as “irresponsible for anyone to say [the verdict] was rigged.”
Biden addressed Trump’s attempts to discredit his conviction as part of a planned speech from the White House on the Israel-Hamas war.
The president said Trump’s historic guilty verdict reaffirmed “the American principle that no one is above the law.”
The verdict marks the first time in U.S. history that a former president was convicted in a criminal trial. The case focused on payments made by Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to cover up politically damaging stories about the then-candidate during the 2016 presidential election.
“Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years, and it literally is the cornerstone of America,” Biden said. “The justice system should be respected and we should never allow anyone to tear it down.”
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