President Joe Biden told a fundraising audience in Greenwich on Monday night that Donald J. Trump has been “unhinged” since the former president’s conviction last week pushed the presidential race into “uncharted territory.”
“For the first time in American history, a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency,” Biden said, according to a White House pool report. “But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice.”
Biden spoke at the home of Richard Plepler, the former chairman and chief executive of Home Box Office.
A native of Manchester, Plepler also was an aide to U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, who attended the fundraiser, as did Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes and Connecticut’s other statewide constitutional officers.
The Biden campaign had outpaced Trump’s in fundraising until last week’s guilty verdict.
While Biden was on his way to Connecticut, the Trump campaign announced a $141 million fundraising haul in May that it attributed to Trump’s trial in New York on charges arising from hush money paid to a porn actress to keep a sexual tryst out of the news during his 2016 campaign.
“We are moved by the outpouring of support for President Donald J. Trump. The American people saw right through Crooked Joe Biden’s rigged trial, and sent Biden and Democrats a powerful message — the real verdict will come on November 5th,” Trump’s senior advisers, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, said in a joint statement.
Biden, whose son, Hunter, is standing trial this week on federal gun charges, condemned Trump’s attacks on the judicial system.
“It’s reckless and dangerous for anyone to say that’s rigged just because they don’t like the” outcome, Biden said.
He said Trump’s behavior is a continuation of instability evident since he lost the 2020 election and claimed, without the backing of many in his campaign and administration, he was the victim of a massive multi-state election fraud.
“Something snapped in this guy for real” after 2020. “It’s literally driving him crazy.”
It was a brief visit for the president.
Biden landed in White Plains, N.Y., at 6:16 p.m. and traveled by motorcade to nearby Greenwich. Biden made his entrance at 7:38 p.m., finished 21 minutes later and was back on the road by 8:09 p.m., passing by pro-Palestinian protesters.
Dodd and Himes flew back to Washington with Biden.