What does the Donald Trump shooting mean for the US presidential election?
A defiant Donald Trump came out alive after an assassination attempt at a campaign rally. Will this have any bearing on what happens in the US presidential election in November?
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In brief…
- Donald Trump was shot in the ear while on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania on the eve of a Milwaukee Republican party conference
- Now, his supporters could be even more enthused and likely to turn up to vote
- Meanwhile, scrutiny on Joe Biden could shift away from his age and mental ability to the assassination attempt, the News Agents say.
Donald Trump, face bloodied, mouthing the words fight, fight, fight.
Whatever you think of him, these are powerful images that could define his presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has been facing questions over whether he is even fit to stand after his disastrous performance in the first TV debate between the two candidates.
But will the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania over the weekend influence the outcome of the election in November?
The roll call of political violence is depressingly long in the US.
— Jon Sopel (@jonsopel) July 14, 2024
4 presidents assassinated:
Lincoln, Garfield, McKinlay and JFK
3 attempted of serving or former:
Teddy Roosevelt, Reagan and now Trump
And that’s not including congress.
Thank god for our sane gun laws
Here’s what the News Agents say.
Jon Sopel says that the images of a "defiant” and “determined” blood-soaked Trump will ”have a bearing on what happens in November.”
For Lewis Goodall, Trump’s reaction “reminds us what a formidable political candidate he is as his political instincts were “absolutely as sharp as they've ever been”.
He adds: “He knew, I think, what that picture would look like. And he knew in saying fight, fight, fight, in the way that he did, he knew how that would be interpreted.”
Now, Trump’s own standing in the Republican party will become even stronger, according to Goodall.
He notes: “You've seen people respond to this, Trump allies, but not just Trump allies as well, talking about him in terms of martyrdom. Talking about him being saved by God, talking about him being saved by Jesus Christ.”
Goodall adds, citing an argument made by American pollster Frank Luntz, that what happened in Pennsylvania also guarantees that every Trump supporter will actually go out and vote.
Meanwhile, Biden’s supporters won’t have the same participation certainty.
“There is the possibility that the Republicans who are already more enthused in this election anyway - however Trump reacts and even if he says nothing about it - are enthused by these events”, says Goodall.
What happens next?
Trump has already arrived in Milwaukee for a Republican party conference despite the attack on Saturday.
According to Sopel, his next move should be to “issue a call for calm, for respect, let this be settled at the ballot box”.
“I think it would reach out across the aisle and help him demographically with those groups that have still been resistant to going towards Donald Trump”, he adds.
And if the Democrats are to change their presidential candidate amid the series of questions looming over Biden’s head, then “by God they’ve got to do it now”, Sopel adds.
He says: “if he's going to be forced out of the race, as there were moves to do before this, they've been halted. No one's going to be talking about his age now.
“It is going to be about the lessons of this, about Trump's health, what Trump does. It's not going to be about Joe Biden's age.
“Joe Biden has won breathing space, which I think means it now looks more or less certain that Biden will remain the Democrat nominee come November, with all the problems associated with that.”
Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents now: Trump shot: What does it mean for the election?