- Hunter Biden’s conviction disrupts Trump’s claims of a rigged justice system favoring the Bidens.
- Now, the Trump campaign is changing its attack strategy.
- Trump’s campaign had hoped an acquittal would support his narrative of political persecution.
Hunter Biden can now be called a convicted felon — just like Donald Trump.
But that throws a wrench into the Trump campaign’s messaging that the justice system is rigged against him in favor of the Biden family.
Insiders within the Trump campaign had talked about how a Hunter Biden acquittal would help Trump raise millions of dollars because it would help prove his narrative that he's a victim of political persecution, The New York Times reported, citing a person with knowledge of the campaign.
But the guilty verdict against Hunter Biden has raised an uncomfortable question: if the justice system is rigged by Joe Biden against Trump, why would the system also convict the president's son?
The decision has thrown "a bit of sand in the gears" of those echoing Trump's lines of attack, a GOP strategist told Politico.
Now, his campaign is shifting its strategy to avoid attacking Hunter Biden's conviction on Tuesday of three felony counts related to obtaining a gun while addicted to drugs.
Instead, the campaign is painting the conviction as a distraction from what it says are greater crimes.
"This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine," Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary, said in a statement.
"Crooked Joe Biden's reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit," Leavitt added.
Biden has not been charged in either Hunter Biden's gun case or a separate tax case set to go to trial this fall.
Trump himself said in a private meeting last year that Republicans shouldn't "go overboard" attacking the president's son, because it could backfire against him by making the president seem like a sympathetic father, The Times reported, citing a person who was present at the meeting.
The Times noted that references to Hunter have quietly been scaled back in Trump's campaign speeches.
Biden, meanwhile, vowed not to pardon his son and said he'd respect the jury's verdict.