‘Change the calculation’
Asked repeatedly about Biden’s comment at a White House news conference, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was “OK to talk about someone’s record, to talk about someone’s character.”
Despite cancelling a trip to Texas on July 15, Biden is proceeding with a planned visit to the battleground state of Nevada, setting up a split-screen of Trump’s convention appearances.
In an op-ed in the Washington Post, political columnist Karen Tumulty wrote that “there could hardly be a worse time for Biden to be forced to rethink his strategy against Trump.”
Trump’s shooting could, however, help Biden in his fight for his own political survival.
“This obviously changes the calculus for people calling for Biden to resign,” Peter Loge, a political scientist at George Washington University, told AFP.
“It gives Biden some time.”
The Democratic meltdown over Biden’s age after the debate had dominated the airwaves for weeks, but with Saturday’s shooting the revolt over his candidacy was abruptly silenced.
Biden has also sought to strike a presidential tone on the shooting, reacting quickly on July 13 and addressing the nation on July 14 in just the third Oval Office address of his presidency.
But if the shooting could unify Democrats, it could also doom Biden’s re-election bid, with the president already trailing in most polls.
Iconic images of a bloodied Trump shaking his fist after the shooting are already galvanizing Republican hopes that voters will continue to back him for a landslide victory in November.
However, Loge said there may be little effect since “many voters see Trump as too crazy and Biden as too old, and an assassination attempt doesn’t change that.”
He added that focusing on the immediate impact of the shooting on the campaigns was the “wrong question” and overlooked the broader need to address the threats and violence plaguing American politics.
“If we make political violence a campaign strategy, we forget about it and end up normalizing it,” he said. AFP
