When Donald J. Trump returned to the green room after Thursday night’s debate, he gave a two thumbs up to waiting advisers who greeted him with a standing ovation for his performance against President Biden.
The former president and his team were still basking in the glow of Democratic accusations, hand-wringing and doubts about Mr. Biden’s lackluster performance Friday morning as the Supreme Court handed Mr. Trump a second political gift in less than 24 hours. .
The Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors went too far in their use of the obstruction law in charging a rioter who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The decision could have far-reaching consequences for hundreds of defendants accused of crimes that day. Of course, the most prominent person charged in part with obstruction is Mr. Trump himself, though his case could continue even after the law is tightened.
“GREAT VICTORY!” Trump posted on his social media site, Truth Social, after the court ruling.
The one-two punch of successes has given Trump’s campaign new life almost exactly a month after he became the first major-party candidate ever to be convicted of a felony. Trump was en route to a campaign event Friday in Virginia, a state that hasn’t elected a Republican president in two decades but that Trump advisers now say could be a battleground state in 2024.
Biden campaigned in North Carolina, trying to stake a state that Democrats had not won since 2008.
On Thursday night, Trump sought to minimize the severity of the Jan. 6 attack and brush aside questions about his role in the violent riot at the Capitol. He also defended the Jan. 6 defendants, suggesting that some of them had been wrongly charged, a position the conservative-dominated Supreme Court appeared to affirm.
“What they’ve done to some people who are so innocent, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Trump told Biden during the debate. “What you’ve done, how you’ve destroyed the lives of so many people.”
Trump attempted to reverse the ugly and deadly events unfolding by commenting on the “great border,” “lowest taxes,” and “lowest regulations” that day.
“On January 6th, we were respected all over the world,” Mr. Trump claimed.
The Supreme Court is expected to make its final rulings on the current hearing on Monday. Then a decision will likely be made on Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution on charges that he plotted to influence the 2020 election.
Of course, the calendar isn’t quite kind to Mr. Trump. He’s set to be sentenced following his conviction in New York for falsifying documents to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star. He’s set to be sentenced on July 11.
For his part, Mr. Biden sought to turn the page on a shaky debate performance that he hoped would soon be forgotten.
“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” Mr. Biden said onstage at a rally in North Carolina. “I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to.”
Perhaps the best news of the day for Mr. Biden came when Nielsen released its ratings. While the debate was on track to be the most-watched non-sports broadcast of the year, with about 50 million viewers, it was about two-thirds the audience for the first debate of 2020.
