Campaign Context: Biden calls Trump a ‘convicted felon’ at debate—does it matter?

As campaign season continues, politicians are turning up the volume on campaign rhetoric. To cut through the noise, we’re launching Campaign Context, a series providing clarity on the messages you’re hearing from candidates on the campaign trail. We’re digging past the politics and into the facts to provide you with the transparent, spin-free information you need to make informed decisions this election season.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Ahead of Thursday night’s first presidential debate of the 2024 cycle, President Joe Biden’s campaign released a political ad labeling former President Donald Trump a “convicted criminal.” But the question was whether President Biden himself would go there on the debate stage itself.

He did. “Only one of us is a convicted felon, and I’m looking at him,” Biden said, referring to Trump’s May conviction in his criminal hush money trial in New York.

As for whether Trump’s New York legal troubles resonate with voters, KXAN looked to this month’s fresh polling numbers from Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

The June polling showed 50% of Republican respondents said the former president’s conviction would make them “much more likely” to support Trump in November.

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For context, KXAN went straight to one of the researchers behind the poll, James Henson, Executive Director of the Texas Politics Project.

“I think a lot of this is just what we would call ‘confirmation’ or kind of a means of ‘social expression’ rather than an indication that anybody’s minds have changed,” Henson said.

The poll also found Trump’s favorability ratings went up a few points among Republicans compared to this time last year, and his disapproval ratings went up among Democrats and Independents.

But Henson pointed out all of that movement was within the poll’s margin of error.

“It’s a testament to the fact that most people out there —particularly Republicans and Democrats— know what they think about Donald Trump,” Henson said.

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