A focus group of undecided voters participated in a discussion last week following former President Trump’s historic conviction, and many expressed mixed reactions to the verdict, with some stating that it would not heavily influence their decision in the upcoming November election.
A transcript of the focus group released on Tuesday features 11 swing voters. All of them have previously supported Trump, President Biden, or Hillary Clinton at least once during 2016, 2020, and 2024, according to the New York Times.
The undecided voters were pressed to evaluate the impact of Trump’s guilty verdict in his New York trial and its influence on their inclination to vote for him. Some respondents unequivocally stated that they remained “torn” following the verdict in the New York v. Trump records falsification trial, which marked Trump as the first-ever former president to be convicted of a crime, Fox News reported.
Others stated that the verdict influenced their decision in November, but it wasn’t a decisive factor for many of them. “Inflation, the economy, immigration and abortion were the things that they said would ultimately determine their votes,” the Times reported.
James, 53, from Iowa, said: “They’ve been going after Trump since he was elected in 2016. Democracy is supposed to be about the will of the people. I don’t really think the majority of the people in this country wanted to see him prosecuted on these charges.” Later, he also wondered aloud if the jury made the right decision.
After other participants said they were hesitant to vote for a convicted felon, Jonathan, 37, from Florida, interjected: “You have to remember why Trump is the choice of millions of people. Trump represents a shock to the system. His supporters don’t hold him to the same ethical standards. He’s the antihero, the Soprano, the ‘Breaking Bad,’ the guy who does bad things, who is a bad guy but does them on behalf of the people he represents.”
Hilary, a 55-year-old social worker from California who voted for Trump in 2016, stated that she was unwilling to vote for a convicted felon. However, she also expressed reservations about casting a vote for Biden. Other members of the group seemed to share her dilemma.
“Despite my absolute concerns about the mental fitness and policy disagreements that I have with Joe Biden, I cannot envision casting a vote for Donald Trump,” she told the New York Times. She added: “I can envision casting a vote for Biden and then needing a very stiff drink.”
Frank, 65, from Arizona, said: “The more I see Trump dealing with this, the less confident I am in him. A president’s got to be a step apart from just a good person. And I have a problem with his integrity and ethics. I’m swinging toward probably Biden. And I don’t like Biden. I don’t like him … got no ethics, either.”
Jonathan later doubled down on his Soprano metaphor in defense of the former president to the New York Times.
“Trump is not a moral compass to a lot of his supporters. He’s the bad guy that’ll do things on our behalf. He’s the Tony Soprano or the Walter White … he’s an antihero.”
