Trump Carries The Stain Of Conviction Like A Crown. Will The Verdict Matter To Voters?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The bravado behind Donald Trump’ s boastful hypothesis in 2016 — “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters” — is headed for a real-world reckoning.

Until now, at least, he’s been uncannily right. Through his two impeachments, his desperate agitations to stay in power after losing the last election and the far-ranging series of criminal charges against him from Florida to Georgia to Washington to New York, Trump has held sway with his acolytes and the bulk of the Republican Party.

But now he’s the first president in history to carry the stain of felony conviction. Will it matter in the November election?

After the damning verdict, everyone seemed to rush for the partisan ramparts. But this is untraveled territory for Americans — this finding of criminal behavior signed, sealed and delivered by unanimous jurors against the only man who has been the subject both of a presidential portrait and a mug shot.

Even some firm anti-Trumpers aren’t counting on the convictions making a difference. “Get ready for a felonious president,” said Joan Marks, a 58-year-old Democrat who offered her glum prediction of a Trump victory while standing outside Manuel’s Tavern, a popular liberal hangout near Jimmy Carter’s presidential library in Atlanta.

Contributions flowed in to the Trump campaign — more than $1 million for each for the 34 convictions, his people said.

The case will go down in history as “The People of the State of New York vs. Donald J. Trump.” But after the verdict, just as before it, leading Republicans and a variety of likeminded voters wrote it off as just another egregious example of Us vs. Them.

“Political persecution at the highest level,” said West