How Democrats view the post-assassination-attempt political landscape
“Trump is not a martyr,” one House Democrat told me. “He is a menace.”
First Things First
This week couldn’t arrive fast enough for congressional Democrats, national party officials and Biden campaign aides, who were each looking forward to activating an aggressive counterprogramming operation for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
But then a 20-year-old attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a campaign event in rural western Pennsylvania—killing a father, critically injuring two more rally goers and causing a flesh wound to the ear of the former president—and the political calculus instantly required a second thought.
President Joe Biden left his Delaware beach home early on Saturday to return to the White House for several briefings with his homeland security team and senior law enforcement officials. Biden and Trump spoke late Saturday night and the president delivered remarks from the Roosevelt Room on Sunday afternoon and in a rare Oval Office address in the evening.
“A former president was shot, an American citizen killed for simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing. We cannot, we must not go down this road in America,” Biden said from the Resolute Desk. “There is no place in America this kind of violence for any violence ever. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.”
Several Democrats I spoke to over the weekend agreed with Biden’s condemnation of political violence. But they also said the attempted assassination hadn’t altered the fundamentals of the campaign and that the party should continue to draw the policy and character contrasts they feel will help Biden reassemble the coalition he’ll need to win a second term.
One House Democrat told me they get data on nationwide mass shootings each evening as part of their work to end gun violence.
“Republicans don’t rage against those killings and shootings,” the member, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about a sensitive situation, said of their GOP colleagues speaking out against the Trump shooting. “They don't deem those lives important.”
The member added that the shooting is unlikely to shift the debate on gun violence prevention and that democracy would still be at risk under a second Trump presidency.
“Trump stoked January 6th, he bears responsibility for the harming of Capitol Police and members of Congress, and the rise of chaos,” they added. “Trump is not a martyr. He is a menace.”
A veteran Democratic operative told me that a failed assassination doesn’t change the fact that Trump is a convicted felon and fraudster whose policies would only benefit wealthy Americans, big corporations and social conservatives.
“He would send our country into a recession, destroy millions of middle-class jobs and torch the Constitution. He’s a poor man’s [President] Xi Jinping [of China] and envies the ability of dictators everywhere to force their will onto the people,” the operative said. “That is his plan for the America and we cannot let that happen. We must crush him at the ballot box again on November 5.”
The Biden campaign paused all its outbound communications and began work to pull down its TV ads as quickly as possible in the hours after the attempted assassination. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee—the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm—paused its digital fundraising and ads, a DSCC confirmed to me on Sunday. The House Democrats’ campaign arm—the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee—did the same, according to a source familiar. President Biden postponed a trip to Texas today, where he was scheduled to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act during a visit to the LBJ Presidential Library.
But Biden traveled to Las Vegas this evening and will resume his public schedule tomorrow with several events, including a speech at the 115th NAACP National Convention to discuss his administration’s work to advance racial justice and equity.
While Biden has called for Americans across the political spectrum to tone down their rhetoric, the White House indicated the president would continue to call out Trump in official settings and on the campaign trail.
“There are differences in our agenda, and what Republicans believe. There are differences and that is okay,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this afternoon. “And it is okay to speak to someone’s record and someone’s character. But we cannot accept violence. We cannot accept that.”
But Trump, who had supposedly suggested he would tone down his trademark incendiary rhetoric, made it easier for both sides to return to the status quo.
During a victory lap on his Truth Social app following the decision to toss out the federal criminal case against former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents after his presidency, Trump attacked President Biden without evidence for directing the Justice Department to target the former president in what he describes as election interference.
“The Democrat Justice Department coordinated ALL of these Political Attacks, which are an Election Interference conspiracy against Joe Biden’s Political Opponent, ME,” Trump said. “Let us come together to END all Weaponization of our Justice System, and Make America Great Again!
It’s that bombast that Democrats say led us to this past weekend’s shooting. But have Democrats contributed to the high temperature observers say has created the environment for these acts of political violence to occur?
“No, not all,” the House Democrat from earlier said. “Democrats are afraid of this country turning into The Handmaid’s Tale.”
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Tuesday happenings
The House and Senate are out.
President Biden will participate in an interview with BET’s Ed Gordon. Biden will also speak at the NAACP National Convention in Las Vegas and join Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) at an economic summit in Las Vegas.
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