President Joe Biden's reelection campaign is reevaluating its strategy following an assassination attempt on Republican rival Donald Trump in western Pennsylvania, which has led to a temporary halt in attacks on the former president. In response to the shooting on Saturday, Biden's campaign has withdrawn television ads and suspended other political communications, including those that referenced Trump's May conviction in New York on felony charges related to hush money paid to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal before the 2016 election.
Instead of criticizing Trump in the near future, the White House and the Biden campaign plan to emphasize the president's past condemnations of various forms of political violence, such as his strong criticism of the 'disorder' caused by campus protests over the Israel-Gaza conflict, according to anonymous campaign officials. Biden's advisors had previously sought to quell calls from some Democrats and others for him to step aside and allow another candidate to represent the party in the November 5 election, focusing instead on the threats they believe Trump poses to U.S. democratic norms and reproductive rights, as well as his false claims of winning the 2020 election.
'This changes everything,' a campaign official commented on the assassination attempt. 'We're still assessing. Making the case against Trump, drawing that split screen, will get much harder.' 'The president is trying to lower the temperature,' the official added. Campaign officials anticipate that the assassination attempt will reduce pressure from congressional Democrats for Biden, 81, to withdraw from the race due to concerns about his fitness for office. Some Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate have openly urged Biden to drop out following his less than stellar performance in a June debate against Trump.
Biden's planned visit to the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library in Austin, Texas, where he was expected to discuss the landmark Civil Rights Act and criticize Trump's stance on immigrants and American diversity, is now under review and may be canceled. Given that the shooting occurred in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, which Biden narrowly won over Trump in 2020, the incident could significantly impact the election, potentially boosting Republican turnout among voters sympathetic to Trump, according to political strategists.
'This doesn't guarantee that Trump flips Pennsylvania,' Republican pollster Frank Luntz wrote on social media. 'But the long and winding road for Joe Biden just became even longer and windier. Just as the George Floyd incident had a lasting impact on tens of millions of Americans, the shooting of Donald Trump will be significantly consequential in a way the shooter never intended.' Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020, an event that sparked protests across the U.S. and internationally. Other Democratic candidates this year are also reconsidering their strategies to focus on the perceived dangers of a Trump presidency.
'The real question is whether in two weeks we can go back and declare Trump a threat to the country. That was our playbook, and it's fair, but unclear how much of our spurs were taken off,' said a Democrat involved in a Senate campaign.
