For weary Democrats, Trump verdict is finally a bright spot

For Democrats who have suffered through a cycle of tough news about President Joe Biden, Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts in New York on Thursday offered a rare bright spot.

Biden, who has struggled in the polls and is battling to keep some of his core base intact for the fall election, was quiet himself after the verdict was announced, as his campaign stayed on message that the only way to defeat Trump was at the ballot box.

“No one is above the law ... Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement. “The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. "

NBC News was inside Biden’s campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, just before news of an imminent verdict broke. It was, at least at the moment, just another Thursday in the bustling two floors of office space in a downtown high-rise near Biden’s home. The campaign was gearing up for a major month meant to turn the page from the end of Trump’s trial, which will end with the first of two face-to-face Biden-Trump debates.

At the same time, the campaign on Thursday underscored messaging it teased last week: that voters should wake up to the possibility of another Trump term. That means, they say, getting involved in Democratic campaigns and fundraisers to stop Trump in November — and not expecting that Trump would somehow go away because of the myriad trials he faces.

But allies and fellow Democrats saw the resounding convictions — on all counts — as potentially hindering Trump’s electoral prospects in what poll after poll has shown to be a close race.

“There is no way to spin that this is a good