T-shirts declaring “I vote for the convicted felon” in five different styles fill a table in a gift shop. The crowd roars when the name of the Manhattan district attorney who prosecuted Donald Trump is mentioned…
But the legal cases hanging over Trump’s bid for a second term seemed to be an afterthought for many of those gathered in Milwaukee this week to formally nominate him at the Republican National Convention. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally last weekend took center stage, and for many Republicans, the threat of a criminal indictment derailing the former president’s electoral chances seems to be diminishing by the day.
“This is now last week’s news,” said Tennessee delegate James Garrett. “The cases are all delayed. We don’t see them very much in the courtroom anymore.” Garrett welcomed the fact that the strongest of four criminal cases against the Republican nominee — in which Trump is accused of mishandling classified documents — was dismissed this week by a Florida judge. But he hasn’t heard much from people in Milwaukee talking about it.
Dozens of Republicans polled at the convention are more confident than ever in their decision to continue to nominate a man convicted of 34 felonies and prosecuted for 54 others, setting aside or even embracing something that in another election year might have seemed an insurmountable obstacle. Heading into the convention, polls showed Donald Trump widening his lead over President Biden, whose faltering performance in the late June debates threw Democrats into chaos as they fought over whether he should remain a candidate.
Prosecutions
In Milwaukee, the Republican Party’s unbridled contempt for a justice system that they say has unfairly targeted Trump and “weaponized” him and his allies was on full display Wednesday night. Peter Navarro, released hours earlier from a four-month prison sentence for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, took the convention stage.
“If they can come for me, and if they can come for Donald Trump, be careful,” Navarro said of the justice system. “They will come for you.”
Democrats have called Mr. Trump a “convicted felon” and have reminded voters as often as possible of the ongoing legal cases against him, which are unlikely to be resolved before November.
In the spring, a New York jury convicted Mr. Trump of falsifying business records to conceal payments to an adult film star, but sentencing was recently postponed until September after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents enjoy immunity for official acts.
Mr. Trump also faces charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election, mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. But those cases are unlikely to be heard before the election, and a Florida judge on Monday dismissed the classified documents case, ruling that special counsel Jack Smith was improperly appointed (Mr. Smith has appealed).
“Donald Trump has been demonized, he’s been prosecuted, he’s been accused, and he almost lost his life. We can’t let him down,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a prime-time speech in Milwaukee on Tuesday. He used to say — when he was running against Trump — that the former president’s legal troubles would be a drag on the party.
“They attacked his reputation. They impeached him. They tried to ruin him and prosecuted him unfairly,” said South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem, speaking to delegates Monday. “But even in the most perilous moments this week, his instincts were to stand and fight.”
The Republican convention, by design, focused largely on the policy issues that matter most to Trump — inflation, immigration, crime — rather than more divisive topics, including the legal troubles that helped Trump win the primaries by inflaming his base. Almost no one mentioned the lawsuits against Trump.
But Republicans have also sought to highlight some of the harsh criticism of the prosecutors who brought the case against Mr. Trump.
Corrupted system
Savannah Chrisley, whose parents appeared on a reality TV show before being jailed for fraud, told the convention on Tuesday that they had been “persecuted by crooked prosecutors in Fulton County,” the Georgia jurisdiction where Mr. Trump is accused of trying to overturn his 2020 defeat.
“Donald J. Trump has only one conviction that matters, and that is to make America great again,” Mr.me Chrisley
One of the most fiery speakers of the week was Madeline Brame, who accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — the man behind Mr. Trump’s conviction in New York — of mishandling her son’s 2018 murder case. Trump, she shouted, was “a victim of the same corrupt system.”
Democrats are betting that Mr. Trump’s legal cases will hurt him with swing voters, even as they rally his base. But because voters view both Trump and Biden negatively, polls show that the former president’s conviction in the spring did not shake up the race.
Republicans at the convention focused on Trump’s conviction and dismissed his legal cases as partisan attacks. They called them lawfare (abuse of the judicial system against political enemies) and even “fictitious” ones.
“I think this issue has been pushed to the back burner, especially with what happened this past weekend,” said Steven Giorno, another delegate from Tennessee, referring to the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump. He echoed the former president’s assertions that the prosecution of him constitutes “interference in the election.” Prosecutors, meanwhile, have said they are simply following the facts.
Florida state Sen. Debbie Mayfield, who initially endorsed Mr. DeSantis for president last year, said she was “not worried at all” about Mr. Trump’s legal affairs. “People should be worried about what happened,” she added.
At the gift shop outside the media center, customers say they like the “I vote for the criminal” shirts. But the most popular item Wednesday was a new item. One after another, customers paid $50 for T-shirts depicting Donald Trump in Saturday’s shooting, surrounded by Secret Service and raising his fist in front of an American flag.