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He noted that the jury heard five weeks of evidence before reaching its verdict, and that Trump could appeal the decision like any other American convicted of a crime.
The president also criticized Trump for trying to undermine important principles, suggesting the case was politically driven by Biden and his administration.
“It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for someone to say this is rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden said.
He added: “The justice system must be respected and we must never allow anyone to subvert it.”
Biden was at his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, marking the anniversary of his grown son Beau’s death from brain cancer in 2015 when the jury returned its verdicts Thursday, and he offered no personal reaction to the trial at the time .
But he returned to Washington on Friday for a White House event with the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and spoke to reporters about the situation in the Middle East before answering questions about Trump’s case.
Biden did not respond to the pointed questions that followed about what he thought about Trump directly accusing him or whether Trump’s name should remain on the ballot.
The president’s comments came shortly after Trump spoke to reporters at his namesake tower in Manhattan on Friday.
Trump, hoping to incite his supporters, cast himself as a martyr, suggesting that if it could happen to him, “they can do it to anybody.”
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to save our country and our Constitution. I don’t mind,” Trump said.
Biden has for months carefully avoided getting involved in Trump’s legal drama, trying not to fuel his Republican rival’s claims that his criminal problems are the result of a politically motivated prosecution. But with the New York trial winding down, the Biden campaign has become much more vocal about it.
His campaign released a series of innuendo-laden statements that alluded to the trial to attack Trump’s policy positions, and then Biden himself joked that he had heard Trump was “free on Wednesday” — the trial’s scheduled day off — in a video statement when he agreed to debate Trump directly.
As closing arguments took place on Tuesday, the Biden campaign even appeared outside a Manhattan courthouse with actor Robert De Niro and two former police officers who responded to the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot in what it said it was an attempt to refocus the presidential race on the former president’s role in the insurgency.
That decision came as the campaign felt its message about the stakes of the election was struggling to break through the intense focus on the process.
Shortly after Thursday’s verdict, Biden’s re-election campaign sought to keep the focus on the choice voters face in November and the impact of a second Trump presidency.
“Trump’s second term means chaos, stripping Americans of their freedoms and fueling political violence — and the American people will reject him this November,” Biden spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement.
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