Biden campaign staffers in the Wilmington headquarters reportedly erupted in cheers as news of the verdict, which found former President Trump guilty on all counts, reached the public Thursday evening, ABC’s White House correspondent Mary Bruce reported.
“Our team has heard that there were cheers inside the Biden headquarters in Wilmington as the verdict was read,” Bruce said on-air moments after the jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records on all 34 charges, concluding his historic and unprecedented criminal trial.
Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign wasted no time reacting to the unanimous guilty verdicts publicly, issuing a statement moments after the conviction claiming that “the threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater.
TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN NEW YORK CRIMINAL TRIAL
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said.
But Tyler emphasized that “today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”
“He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power,” Tyler’s statement continues.
BIDEN CAMPAIGN POUNCES ON TRUMP’S GUILTY CRIMINAL TRIAL VERDICT: NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW’
He argued that “a second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November.”
Trump, speaking to cameras following the verdict, called it “disgraceful,” charged that the trial was “rigged.” and said the “real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” as he pointed to his presidential election rematch with Biden.
Bruce reported that Biden himself has “been very careful in the last weeks not to comment on this trial,” but that according to her sources,”that will now change.”
“Obviously, these guilty verdicts are a political gift to Democrats, a political gift to the president,” she continued. “He is now running against a convicted felon — but don’t expect the president to completely upend his campaign messaging because of this I’m told. This verdict is not now going to somehow become the centerpiece of his messaging to the American people.”
Bruce said Biden does not want to appear “over celebratory” with the verdict to avoid feeding “in to that narrative that this was somehow a witch hunt concocted by President Biden.”
“He has been adamant that he has nothing to do with this…what you can expect the president to do though, is to continue to argue that Donald Trump, he believes, is unfit to serve and he will make the argument that ultimately it is up to voters to decide Donald Trump’s future because even if he does face any kind of prison…that is unlikely to happen before an election,” she said. “So he is going to make the argument that this untimely comes down to the ballot.”
The Biden campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.