NEW YORK CITY – Former President Donald Trump and his legal team aren’t the only ones waiting anxiously for a jury verdict.
There are also the political campaigns of both Trump and his 2024 general election rival, President Joe Biden.
As a New York jury heads into a second day of deliberations on Thursday over the hush money-related charges against Trump, the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns are preparing post-verdict strategy plans amid uncertainty over how pivotal voters might react to a guilty verdict or a hung jury.
Trump has said he is eager to make up for lost time in terms of campaign events and fundraising and has frequently betrayed concern that a guilty verdict could hurt him with undecided voters, who polling shows could back Biden if the Manhattan jury does find the former president guilty.
“The whole thing is rigged,” Trump told reporters Wednesday at the court after the jury retired to consider its verdict. The former president has long claimed without evidence that prosecutors and other officials are actually targeting his reelection bid as he faces four sets of criminal charges.
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As if to brace voters for a guilty verdict in his New York case, Trump added: “Mother Teresa could not beat those charges, but we’ll see. We’ll see how we do.”
Trump to hit campaign trail full-time
Trump has suggested that even a guilty verdict might conceivably help him because “the people of the country see this as a rigged deal.”
The trial itself started in mid-April and so far does not seem to have hurt Trump much. The former president is leading Biden slightly in many polls nationwide and in battleground states, although most of those leads are within margins of error.
Trump and aides have declined to discuss the specifics of their post-verdict campaign plan except to say it will involve making up for lost time in terms of rallies and fundraisers, of which a bulk of the money coming into his political committee coffers has gone toward lawyer fees.
One pivotal event is already on both candidates’ schedules: A June 27 debate at a CNN studio in Atlanta.
Biden and the ‘unique threat’ of Trump
Biden and his aides have also been circumspect about how they plan to handle the post-verdict campaign, only that it will involve all of the many allegations of misconduct against Trump.
The Biden team offered a preview of its strategy Tuesday with an event at the downtown courthouse where Trump is on trial.
It featured Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro and two Capitol Hill police officers who were injured in the pro-Trump insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone. They accused Trump of being a would-be dictator who is willing to encourage violence to get his way.
Trump also faces future trials over Jan. 6-related charges, as well as his questionable handling of classified documents.
Biden officials were careful to say they didn’t want to comment on the hush money trial and held the event at the courthouse because so many reporters were stationed there.
Michael Taylor, the Biden team’s communications director, said the campaign wants to stress what he called “the unique threat that Donald Trump poses to our democracy.”
Voters also wait for the jury
Also waiting anxiously: Pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators outside the courthouse.
“I know he’s not going to be acquitted – I’m praying for a hung jury,” said Joe Palau, 57, a pro-Trump construction worker from Brooklyn.
Nadine Seiler, 59, who carried a large sign that said “Convict Trump Already!” expressed the same concern in a different context.
“I am very concerned about a hung jury,” said Seiler, a home organizer who took the bus to New York from her home in Waldorf, Maryland.
