Former President Donald Trump said Americans will reach their “breaking point” if he is sentenced to house arrest after his conviction of 34 felony offenses.
“I’m not sure the public would stand for it,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Fox News that aired Sunday. “I think it’d be tough for the public to take. At a certain point, there’s a breaking point.”
He didn’t say what would happen after the breaking point, but he warned that the U.S. was on a dangerous trajectory after what he described as a politically motivated conviction.
“It’s weaponization, and it’s a very dangerous thing. We’ve never had that in this country,” said Mr. Trump, the first former president to become a convicted felon.
He is scheduled for sentencing on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he will be named the party’s nominee for president.
Mr. Trump was found guilty Thursday of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. The maximum sentence is four years in prison for each count. Mr. Trump could also be sentenced to probation, home confinement and fines.
He said people understand the trial was “a scam.”
“And the Republican Party is really, they’re stuck. They stick together in this. They see it’s weaponization of the Justice Department, of the FBI,” he said.
The historic conviction resonated for days across America’s political landscape, delighting Mr. Trump’s opponents and outraging his supporters.
It remains to be seen how the verdict will impact voters in the handful of states that will decide the presidential election.
A nationwide poll by Reuters after Mr. Trump’s conviction found that the all-important independent voters split on the issue. A quarter of independent voters said the conviction made them less likely to support his reelection bid, 18% said they were more likely to back him and 56% said the verdict would not affect their decision in November.
For President Biden’s reelection campaign, the conviction will reinforce the cornerstone anti-Trump message.
“The single biggest threat to our democracy is Donald Trump,” former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who is working with the Biden campaign, said on MSNBC. “This is literally about what this country was founded on, democracy, and that the threat of that not existing anymore. It really scares people.”
Mr. Biden, who has scolded Mr. Trump for undermining faith in the justice system by calling the trial “rigged,” laughed off Mr. Trump’s allegation that he is behind the prosecutions.
“I didn’t know I was that powerful,” Mr. Biden said jokingly to reporters at the White House.
He shrugged off Mr. Trump’s claims that the prosecution will backfire on Democrats, in particular Mr. Biden, who could one day find themselves in a courtroom.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. The system still works,” Mr. Biden said.
Rep. Dean Phillips, a Minnesota Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged Mr. Biden for the party’s presidential nomination, said Mr. Trump should be pardoned.
He called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon Mr. Trump “for the good of the country,” regardless of how despicable the former president may be.
In Congress, Republicans began channeling their anger into action over what they said was mistreatment of Mr. Trump.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, would be called to testify before the Judiciary Committee’s weaponization of the federal government panel on June 13.
“We’re going to drag, at least attempt to drag, Alvin Bragg in … to answer for this,” Mr. Johnson told radio host Mark Levin. “And these rogue prosecutors, we’re going to have them come in and try to explain to us how this is fair.
“We’ll see if they defy that order to come and testify to us, but we’re going to do our job and hold the line in every possible way we can and get accountability for this because we have to do it,” Mr. Johnson said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican and an ardent supporter of Mr. Trump, posted on X that her colleagues had “better prepare to take action” when the House returns to session on Monday.
“Words are meaningless,” she said, citing House Republicans’ subpoena power and control over the appropriations process. “No more excuses.”
In the Senate, eight Republicans threatened to halt work in the chamber or at least make it more difficult for the Democratic majority to accomplish anything.
Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and seven of his Republican colleagues signed a declaration Friday promising to put up as many blockades as possible to Mr. Biden’s agenda, including slowing consideration of his nominees and legislative agenda and voting against his funding priorities.
“Strongly worded statements are not enough,” Mr. Lee wrote in an X post explaining the decree. “Those who turned our judicial system into a political cudgel must be held accountable.”
Sens. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Roger Marshall of Kansas, and Rick Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida also signed the declaration.
“The White House has made a mockery of the rule of law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways,” the declaration said. “As a Senate Republican conference, we are unwilling to aid and abet this White House in its project to tear this country apart.”
In the Sunday interview, Mr. Trump said the trial was difficult for his family.
“I have a wonderful wife who has to listen to this stuff all the time. They do that for this reason. They do that — all these salacious names that they put in of these people, and I’m not even allowed to defend myself because of the gag order,” he said. “In many ways, it’s tougher on my family than it is on me.”
Still, Mr. Trump saw a silver lining for his political campaign.
“But the good news is that I think we’ve set a record beyond all records for fundraising,” he said.
The Trump campaign said it raised nearly $53 million in donations within 24 hours of the conviction.
• Jeff Mordock and Lindsey McPherson contributed to this report.
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