GOP rushes to defend Trump as Biden fundraises off guilty verdict in hush money case

Washington CNN —

Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump called attention to what’s at stake in November’s election in the moments after Trump’s conviction Thursday, as Republicans rushed to the former president’s defense.

“There’s only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box,” Biden wrote on social media, linking to a fundraising page.

Trump, while lambasting the prosecution in his New York hush money criminal trial as a “disgrace,” similarly pointed to this fall’s presidential election.

“The real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people. And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here,” Trump told reporters outside the Manhattan courtroom.

News of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records, sent shockwaves through campaigns up and down the ballot. Republican candidates in races for governor, Senate and House largely aligned themselves with Trump, while Democrats largely avoided the specifics of the case but said justice had prevailed.

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