Biden's railed against Trump for years. Now he must stand by his rival after stunning attack
WASHINGTON ― Time after time throughout his presidency, Joe Biden has found himself in the unenviable position of consoling grieving families after a tragedy.
But when he stepped before television cameras at the White House on Sunday, the consoler-in-chief found himself giving comfort to the unlikeliest of victims: Donald Trump.
Trump, Biden's predecessor and Republican opponent in this year's bare-knuckles presidential contest, was wounded Saturday afternoon after a gunman opened fire at a political rally in Pennsylvania. The FBI said it is investigating the attack as an attempted assassination.
Biden told reporters from the White House Roosevelt Room on Sunday that he had spoken to Trump. “I’m sincerely grateful that he’s doing well and recovering,” he said.
Biden said he and first lady Jill Biden are keeping Trump and his family in their prayers and urged Americans to unite “as one nation to demonstrate who we are.”
The attack on Trump by a gunman using an AR-15-style rifle just four months before the election has thrown into chaos a presidential race that already has been marked by upheaval and unexpected twists.
Biden was already trailing in most polls in battleground states that will decide the election. He now faces an opponent in position to electrify his base after the shooting.
“Republican voters will be energized,” David Urban, a former Trump adviser, said in an interview on CNN. “The Republican base will show up. Nobody in the Republican Party will be staying home this election, I promise you. They’re going to come out and vote for their candidate, who after being shot, stood and defiantly raised his hand and said, ‘Come with me, follow me.’”
He added: “And I think the way Democrats are going to talk about Donald Trump moving forward is forever changed."
Shocking events: This election was already shattering norms. Then the Trump rally shooting happened.
Biden, already resisting a growing chorus of calls to drop out of the race after a disastrous debate with Trump last month, now faces a new test to show he can lead the nation through a volatile moment of political violence while reassuring Democrats he can beat Trump in November.
A recurring theme of Biden’s campaign has been that Trump is a threat to democracy who wants to be a dictator on day one in office. Biden also has called attention to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, and Trump's comments about his intentions during a potential second presidency.
Biden and Democrats now find themselves in the precarious position of pressing their case against Trump while listening to calls from lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to lower the temperature of the race.
In an Oval Office address to the nation Sunday night, Biden stressed that he would continue to make his case but said that competing campaign visions should be articulated peacefully, not through violence.
"I'll continue to speak out strongly for our democracy, stand up for our Constitution, call for action at the ballot box. No violence on our streets," he said. "That's how democracy should work. We debate and disagree."
Trump had been speaking just a few minutes at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, when the gunfire erupted Saturday afternoon. Trump picked himself up and raised a clinched fist as blood oozed from his right ear and trickled down his cheek. The Secret Service quickly removed him from the stage. He was treated by a doctor and returned later Saturday night to his residence in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Biden, who was at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, when the shooting occurred, cut his trip short and rushed back to the White House late Saturday night. He delivered remarks on the shooting three times – once before departing Rehoboth on Saturday and twice from the White House on Sunday, including the primetime Oval Office address to the nation.
Biden’s campaign said it would take down its TV ads as soon as possible. Biden postponed a trip on Monday to Austin, Texas, where he was to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. Vice President Kamala Harris also postponed a trip planned for this week to Palm Beach County, Florida, where she was to meet with Republican women voters.
In addition, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will pause its fundraising activities and advertisements, according to a source familiar to the plans.
The shooting of Trump was the most serious attack against a president (current or former) since Ronald Reagan was wounded by a would-be assassin in 1981. Reagan’s popularity jumped by eight percentage points to 68% in Gallup polls following the shooting, but by the end of the year it had fallen back down to 49%.
But Reagan was shot just a little over two months into his presidency. The attack against Trump happened just four months before the election, raising questions about what impact it might have on the race.
It’s hard to predict what the effect the shooting might have because there is no precedent like it in U.S. history, said David Hopkins, a Boston University expert on presidential politics and polarization in politics.
“I suspect that its importance will not be primarily felt in its effects on how anyone votes this November, but rather in deepening the feelings of Trump and his supporters that he and they are literally under attack from a hostile Democratic opposition and liberal establishment,” he said.
The implications will also depend in part on whether it can be proven the shooter – identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel, Pennsylvania – had coherent political motives or was suffering from mental illness, Hopkins said.
Multiple Republicans have pointed fingers at Biden’s rhetoric in attempting to assign blame for the shooting. But county voter records in Pennsylvania show that Crooks is a registered Republican.
What happens next for the Biden and Trump campaigns remained uncertain on Sunday.
Republicans are arriving in Milwaukee this weekend for their national political convention, which opens Monday. Trump’s campaign said the convention would go on as planned. Trump is scheduled to formally accept the Republican nomination on Thursday.
“The convention is going to be epic,” Reince Priebus, Trump’s former White House chief of staff and chair of the RNC convention host committee, said Sunday on ABC’s "This Week."
Priebus, who spoke to Trump by phone, said the former president is “ready to go,” adding that the “unwavering attitude that he’s bringing now to Milwaukee is going to even further energize this crowd.”
What went wrong? How did Secret Service allow shooter to get so close to Trump?
David Gergen, a longtime former adviser to multiple presidents, including Reagan during the assassination attempt against him, said Trump has a chance to build a wave of support if he tries to unite the country.
“He’s got an opportunity to do something that he hasn’t done so far in this whole campaign and that is to bring us all together,” Gergen said in an interview on CNN.
Gergen said the groundswell of public support Reagan received after his assassination attempt “made him one of the most successful presidents in his genre.”
“I think the past is clear that this country will produce a wave of support and sympathy if Trump now reaches out and says, ‘Ladies and gentleman, we have to work together to bring changes,’” Gergen said. “A lot of conservatives will come around to that. A lot of conservatives will rally to that.”
David Axelrod, who served as top adviser to former President Barack Obama, said Biden’s primetime Oval Office address was intended for Biden to show leadership – both as president and in his campaign against Trump.
“I think it is the right thing for the president to do,” Axelrod said, “but politically, I think he wants to seize some of that leadership in this moment.”
Axelrod questioned whether Trump – who has for years campaigned on divisive rhetoric – can dial back his tone in an appeal to unity.
“This is a big turn in direction from the kind of nature of the Trump campaign for a couple of years here,” Axelrod said on CNN. “It is a chance for him to enlarge himself. And the question is: Is he capable of seizing it?”
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said the shooting should cause Americans to pause and reflect on the political temperament of the country.
"We have to reduce the rhetoric and the tone," Coons said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I'd urge folks to turn off their phones and get off of social media today and take some time with your family and reflect on who we are as a nation and who we want to be."
Contributing: Rebecca Morin and David Jackson
Michael Collins and Joey Garrison cover the White House. Follow Collins on X @mcollinsNEWS and Garrison @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joe Biden must stand by Donald Trump after rally Pennsylvania shooting
