Donald Trump became the first former U.S. President to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who said the two had sex.
The decision rocked the country, with many public officials, including those with ties to the St. Louis-area chiming in with their thoughts.
The verdict, however, while may seem like a decision that would please many who are against Trump, including Democrats, it did shock one Democratic consultant.
"I was shocked to hear he was found guilty on all 34 counts," said Michael Kelley, co-host of Hancock and Kelley and longtime Democratic consultant. "I thought more than likely it be a hung jury, but I'm not a lawyer."
Kelley says as soon as he kept hearing Trump being found guilty on all 34 counts, he felt a sense of calmness coming to him after the initial reaction. But he also said he felt a sense of fear after the decision due to seeing all the partisan reactions to the decision.
"I think the next six months of our lives just got put onto steroids," said Kelley. "It just really scares me the discontent in our country and this rocket fuel I don't know will be something we can stop."
Kelley's co-host John Hancock had a different take on the verdict, with his belief the case on Trump shouldn't have been ever brought to court.
"At the root of it, it's an election violation, an election expenditure violation," said Hancock. "If they would've paid off the porn star with campaign funds and called it "consulting", it be perfectly legal. But they used the business to reimburse the lawyer to pay off the porn star and didn't book it correctly in their taxes and that's essentially what he was found guilty of."
Despite his disagreement that the case should've been brought to court, Hancock piped back at critics who have bashed and said they have lost faith at the judicial system following the decision.
"Our system isn't perfect and sometimes they do get it wrong, but if you are charged with a crime in this country, you are more protected than you are anywhere else in the world," said Hancock. "That was the case in this case. If we lose faith in our judicial and election system, then our country is in real trouble."