Biden attacks Trump as ‘convicted felon’ after 34-count guilty verdict in hush-money trial – live
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Joe Biden went on the attack against Donald Trump last night, with a new and potentially potent weapon: his conviction on business fraud charges. At a campaign event in New York, the president described Trump as a “convicted felon”, and said, “This guy does not deserve to be president whether or not I’m running.” The remarks comes after months of polling that showed the president trailing his predecessor in surveys of the swing states that will determine the election. But all of those were conducted before a jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments ahead of the 2016 election, a historic conviction that Biden’s campaign is clearly hoping will make voters turn their backs on the ex-president.
Only a few polls have been released since the Thursday’s verdict, but they contain signs that Trump’s conviction has dented his support with independents, and the so-called “double haters” – people who like neither candidate. Both groups are seen as pivotal to determining the election, and we’ll see if the trend persists in the months of campaigning to come.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Biden is expected to today sign an executive order allowing the government to turn away asylum seekers from the border, if crossings reach a certain average level. The measure represents an unprecedented crackdown by a Democratic president, and comes as he tried to blunt Republican attacks on his immigration record.
House Republicans have summoned attorney general Merrick Garland for a hearing aimed at holding him in contempt for not turning over recordings of Biden’s interview with a special counsel. The White House last month asserted executive privilege over the audio.
Senate Democrats will hold a hearing exploring how the health outcomes of women nationwide have changed in the two years since the supreme court’s conservatives overturned Roe v Wade.