beautiful picturesThe 2024 campaign has a new iconic image: Donald Trump, minutes after escaping serious or fatal injury from an assassin’s bullet, standing with his fist raised, his face covered in blood, the American flag fluttering in the wind behind him.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” the former president said, as some supporters, who had previously feared for their lives, began cheering.
The bloodshed in Pennsylvania will leave a lasting mark on the American psyche, puncturing the protective shell that surrounds the highest levels of presidential politics—of magnetic screening, bulletproof limousines and heavily armed Secret Service agents. Even former presidents are not protected from the violence that can erupt in everyday American life.
It is also a memorable moment in American political history; one that will surely be replayed in video clips, stills, and eyewitness accounts throughout this presidential campaign and beyond.
In a rare speech from the Oval Office on Sunday night, President Joe Biden called on Americans to cool down the political debate.
“[It] must never become a battlefield and, God forbid, a killing field,” he warned. “No matter how strong our faith, we must never succumb to violence.”
The attack has begun to permeate the US partisan dialogue, as many Republicans have spoken out to condemn President Biden and Democrats for creating a rhetorical environment conducive to violence.
They point to dire warnings about the former president becoming a dictator and threatening democracy as examples of the kind of inflammatory rhetoric that could inspire an assassin.
In particular, they highlighted leaked comments the president made privately to donors last week about intensifying attacks on the former president’s record and “targeting” him.
“They tried to get rid of him in a lot of different ways, financially, they tried to put him in jail,” Donald Trump Jr. said in a television interview on Sunday. “It’s almost like they wanted this to happen.”
But at least for now, the motives and political affiliations of the alleged assassin, 20-year-old Pennsylvania resident Thomas Matthew Crooks, remain dubious. Ultimately, they could easily defy a partisan narrative.
The former president’s eldest son added that, after the assassination, leftists can no longer hold the former president responsible for the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
That violent event came hours after the then-president held a rally just a few dozen blocks away, challenging the results of the 2020 election. His actions that day led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives and, more than a year later, his prosecution by a special counsel appointed by the U.S. attorney general.
If the Pennsylvania shootings do manage to calm this wave of Democratic criticism, it will be just one of the ways it will reshape this presidential campaign. Others could become clear during the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee.
The failed attack on the former president touched on several topics the Trump campaign had planned for the quadrennial gathering, which ended with Trump taking the stage to accept the party’s nomination Thursday night.
First, it could fuel the politics of grievance and repression that are central to his campaign speeches and social media posts.
“They’re not really after me; they’re after you,” is a common Trump quote on T-shirts, billboards and bumper stickers. “I’m just in the way.”
That message will have new power after the former president and his crowd of supporters were shot. Trump fans — many of whom have a near-messianic cult — will have more reason to sympathize with a man who nearly lost his life standing before them.
beautiful picturesThe former president’s near-death experience and subsequent bloody acts of defiance also fit the contrast that Trump campaign officials said they were trying to create at this week’s convention — where the candidate and his party showcased masculinity and strength, while their opponents portrayed weakness.
President Biden’s age and incapacity have hampered his campaign for months — and caused a crisis of confidence among Democrats in his re-election bid after a particularly poor performance at the presidential debate more than two weeks ago.
Saturday night’s attack and Trump’s response to it will allow Republicans to highlight that contrast in the days ahead.
Democrats have spent the past two weeks agonizing over the president’s political future. Now, they have a new set of concerns.
In some ways, the assassination could become a political lifeline for Mr. Biden, as the focus shifts significantly away from his age-related struggles and internal efforts to oust him. But the president’s reelection strategy — which hinges on portraying Trump as a danger to the nation if he were to become president again — could be severely hampered if the American public rejects new, pointed criticism of the man.
Biden’s campaign has pulled all negative ads targeting the former president, fearing they would be seen as out of step with the national mood. The president has also rescheduled a trip to Texas that was scheduled for Monday.
This is just a pause, however, and Democrats will need to continue to attack if they want to erase the fragile gap the former president holds.
That lead — small and not insurmountable, but still significant — has held steady for months, even as national politics have been buffeted by a seemingly endless barrage of unprecedented news.
The former president’s trial and conviction, a series of landmark Supreme Court rulings, Mr. Biden’s debate defeat — none of these appear to have had any impact on the political landscape of the United States in a country that has been and will continue to be deeply divided.
While there has been much talk about how this presidential campaign was upended by the assassination, there is no guarantee that the race will not return to a near-tight balance in the three months leading up to Election Day.
It’s just that now Democrats have less time, less money, and less political incentive to tilt the electoral landscape in their favor.
But Saturday night’s tragedy demonstrated most clearly that expectations and political developments can change in a matter of seconds.
