In an already tense country, the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has enraged his supporters, derailed the Democratic campaign, and raised fears of more political violence ahead of the November election.
Trump’s Republican allies on Saturday portrayed him as a hero, and released a photo of him with a bloodied ear and a clenched fist chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
While Trump has routinely used violent language with his followers, the former president’s advisers and allies have fired back at his Democratic rival President Joe Biden, saying it was his characterization of the Republican presidential nominee as Satan that led to the assassination attempt.
“Today’s incident is not an isolated event. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. This rhetoric directly led to the attempt to assassinate President Trump,” U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, a top candidate to become Trump’s running mate, said on X.
Biden moved quickly to calm the situation, calling the attack unacceptable political violence and withdrawing campaign ads attacking Trump.
“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s abhorrent,” Biden told reporters.
The shooter’s motive is not yet known. According to state voter records, the suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was a registered Republican. He had previously donated $15 to a political action committee that raises money for left-wing and Democratic politicians.
In the short term, the attack will likely heighten Trump’s presence at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, when he accepts his party’s presidential nomination, further reinforcing his supporters’ already deep sense of grievance and alienation toward the country’s political class.
Within hours of the shooting, Trump’s campaign sent out a message asking voters to contribute to the campaign. The message read, “They’re not after me, they’re after you.”
Billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Ackman also supported Trump. Musk said on his social media site X, “I fully support President Trump and wish him a speedy recovery.”
Trump campaign co-manager Chris Lacivita said on X that “For years and even today, left-wing activists, Democrat donors, and now even Joe Biden have made disgusting statements and statements aimed at Donald Trump… It’s time to hold him accountable for this… The best way is through the ballot box.”
Lascivita was apparently referring to recent comments by Biden in which he asked his supporters to focus on defeating Trump rather than on his own performance. “So, we’re done talking about the debates, now it’s time to take on Trump,” said Biden, who has always condemned any political violence.
Political attacks
The US is grappling with the largest and most sustained surge in political violence since the 1970s. Of the 14 deadly political attacks since Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which the perpetrator or suspect had a clear partisan leaning, 13 were right-wing attackers. One was left-wing.
Despite being a former president, Trump has campaigned as an outsider rebel, complaining that he has long been targeted by the federal “deep state” and the Biden administration to prevent him from regaining power.
In doing so he has typically used violent, abusive, and even apocalyptic rhetoric, warning that there will be a “bloodbath” if he is not elected and stating that immigrants living illegally in the United States are “poisoning the blood of our country”.
Some Republicans were already agitated by his constant stoking of the flames.
“If the country wasn’t a powder keg before, it is now,” said Chip Felkel, a Republican activist in South Carolina who has opposed Trump.
Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said the firing could benefit Trump politically because it bolsters his campaign’s narrative that the country is off track.
“The assassination attempt creates sympathy for Trump,” Bannon said. “It also reinforces the idea in voters’ minds that there’s something fundamentally wrong with this country, which is the idea that drives support for him.”
Trump was convicted in May of participating in a scheme to cover up his affair with a porn star, a conviction that did not significantly change the race and indicated that supporters on both sides remained firm in their positions.
Biden is facing debate within his own party over whether he should step down as the Democratic candidate because he feels he is no longer fit for the post. He says his doctors have told him he is healthy. Biden’s poor performance over the past month has benefited Trump in some polls, but other polls show the contest is evenly contested.
Many voters are already alienated from both Biden and Trump. The chaos surrounding the candidates could make voters feel that the country’s problems cannot be solved and that the gulf between the parties cannot be bridged.
U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, a Republican who was shot by a gunman in 2017, told Fox News that violent election rhetoric needs to stop.
“All it takes is one person to hear that and go crazy and act on it and think it’s their cue to take someone out,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
