ANALYSIS: Why Biden’s escalation on Trump guilty verdict is so significant

(CNN) —President Joe Biden’s decision to call out his predecessor Donald Trump as a “convicted felon” for the first time represents a significant hardening of his rhetoric against his Republican general election foe.Biden’s escalation at an off-camera fundraiser in Connecticut on Monday evening came as some Democrats pressed for a more robust political attack on the presumptive Republican nominee following his guilty verdict in his New York hush money trial last week.“For the first time in American history a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency,” Biden said. “But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice.”Other Democratic officials have used such rhetoric. But the phrase took on greater force coming from the mouth of the president himself. While Republicans have rallied around Trump since his conviction, it remains unclear how the verdict will go down in swing states where the shift in a few thousand votes could decide November’s election.Biden’s remark was yet another stunning turn in an election entangled in Trump’s multiple legal threats. It came on a day when the first family was embroiled in its...