The next question is whether it will make him a political loser come Nov. 5.
“Never before in our history has a former president been convicted of a felony, let alone 34 felonies,” notes Zirin. “Never has a major party run a convicted felon as their candidate for president.”
Some insist the conviction won’t have much of an effect on Trump’s electoral chances, and that it could even help him.
But Zirin thinks the jury’s judgment is “devastating for Trump.”
“Until now, he was presumed to be innocent. Funders, Republican politicians and former primary opponents had endorsed him. Now he is a convicted criminal.”
Zirin believes Trump’s got far more serious liabilities than this conviction. “His history as a liar, a bigot and an autocrat hell-bent on wreaking vengeance on his political enemies is much more egregious,” he writes.
“But in a close race in the seven battleground states, this verdict in a Manhattan courtroom should cost Trump dearly at the polls.”
Read the op-ed at TheHill.com.
