Ted Cruz among Republicans blasting Trump guilty verdict: "This is an absolute travesty of justice"
NORTH TEXAS — Republican leaders in Texas, from Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz all condemned the guilty verdict against former President and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The verdict came down as CBS News Texas was interviewing Cruz.
He blasted the trial judge, saying he ran a kangaroo court.
"I think this is an absolute travesty of justice," Cruz said. "This is not about law. This is not about criminal justice. This is about politics. This is about trying to destroy Donald Trump. That was the whole point of this, is to run millions of dollars of campaign ads, calling Joe Biden's principal opponent Donald Trump a convicted felon. This is politics. This is an abuse of the rule of law."
We reached out to a couple of Democratic leaders Thursday evening requesting an interview but didn't hear back.
But two Democratic members of Congress from Texas posted their reactions on the platform "X."
Congressman Marc Veasey of Fort Worth said in his post, "Today's guilty verdict underscores that nobody is above the law—not even a former president of the United States."
Congressman Joaquin Castro of San Antonio posted, "The Republican nominee for President of the United States is a convicted felon - decided by a jury of his peers. Nobody is above the law."
Both Democrats and Republicans point to the historical precedence: the fact that this is the first time that a President or former President has been convicted, let alone being indicted.
SMU Political Science Professor Matthew Wilson said there are still a number of questions that will take months to answer.
"It's clearly extremely significant," said WIlson. "We've never had a President convicted of a felony before. The question of how history-making and how important it will be, remains yet to be determined. We don't know yet what the President's sentence will be, and obviously, if he's sent to prison, that's a much bigger deal than if he just gets probation. We don't know if this will be reversed on appeal. Obviously, if it's reversed on appeal, it's less significant than if the conviction holds up."
With election day a little over five months away, the campaigns for former President Trump and President Biden, along with Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are all coming up with strategies about how they're going to talk about this case.
Some analysts say the verdict will not change the minds of die-hard Trump and Biden supporters.
No doubt, there will be instant national polling that will be conducted.
Professor Wilson and other political analysts though said it's the polls in the seven battleground states that are most important because that's where the election will be determined.
The polls are the closest in these three states: Trump leads by more than two percentage points in Pennsylvania, by half a percentage point in Michigan, and point one percent in Wisconsin, where the Republican National Convention will be held in July.
Analysts say Trump will need to win one of these states.
Trump leads in the other four battleground states of Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina by between four and five percentage points.
Keep in mind, it is still early.
Back in 2016, the polls turned from Hillary Clinton and toward Trump in the final week before Election Day.
Another factor this year, analysts say Kennedy's campaign will also have an impact on the outcome.
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