A shooting at former president Donald Trump\u2019s campaign rally Saturday evening \u2014 which is being investigated as an assassination attempt \u2014 upended the already dark and tumultuous race for the White House.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaign said he still plans to attend the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to begin in Milwaukee on Monday. But the shooting is sure to shift the messaging and tenor \u2014 not to mention the security \u2014 of the massive gathering where the former president is expected to announce his running mate and try to unify his party and the nation behind his vision of grievance and retribution.<\/p>\n
President Biden, speaking from Rehoboth Beach, Del., condemned the shooting. Biden\u2019s campaign, meanwhile, announced it was pausing its communication and pulling down all television ads as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no place in America for this kind of violence,\u201d Biden said in remarks from the Rehoboth Beach police department. \u201cIt\u2019s sick. \u2026 It cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump had been speaking for less than 10 minutes in Butler, Pa., when several loud pops rang out and the former president put his hand to his right ear, the upper part of which had been pierced by a bullet, he later said on social media. As Secret Service agents encircled the former president, Trump raised his right fist defiantly and scowled, mouthing: \u201cFight. Fight. Fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several images of the moment \u2014 including one with a blood-streaked Trump in the shadow of an American flag \u2014 are already ricocheting around social media, all but certain to prove iconic. Several Republican lawmakers simply posted the photos without any words.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Secret Service announced that a suspected shooter had been killed.<\/p>\n
The shooter\u2019s motives were unknown late Saturday. But the shooting \u2014 whose shock waves are still rippling outward \u2014 is certain to scramble the presidential contest, which was already plunged into turmoil just over two weeks ago, when Biden\u2019s halting debate performance raised questions about his age and ability to run a vigorous campaign.<\/p>\n
Trump is often most comfortable \u2014 and most effective \u2014 when playing both martyr and victim, and Saturday\u2019s shooting naturally thrusts him back into that role. Trump immediately put out a statement thanking the Secret Service and law enforcement, expressing his condolences to the other victims and offering a dramatic recounting of the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!\u201d<\/p>\n
The images of Trump in the immediate aftermath of the shooting are likely to become iconic, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something in the American spirit that likes seeing fortitude and courage under pressure and the fact that Trump held his fist up high will become a new symbol,\u201d Brinkley said. \u201cBy surviving an attempted assassination, you become a martyr, because you get a groundswell of public sympathy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The violence, at least for the moment, seemed to overtake the previously dominant narrative of the campaign: the Democratic disarray following Biden\u2019s debate performance and many Democrats\u2019 desire that he step aside for a younger candidate.<\/p>\n
But it also likely complicates Biden and his team\u2019s calculations going forward. Speaking to donors Monday on a private phone call, Biden said it was time to train his focus on Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have one job, and that\u2019s to beat Donald Trump,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m absolutely certain I\u2019m the best person to be able to do that. So, we\u2019re done talking about the debate, it\u2019s time to put Trump in a bull\u2019s eye.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump had yet to be discharged from the hospital when Republicans began saying that Biden\u2019s rhetoric had led to Saturday\u2019s violence.<\/p>\n
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) pointed to Biden\u2019s remarks \u2014 specifically about putting Trump in the bull\u2019s eye \u2014 and blamed Biden for the violence.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoe Biden sent the orders,\u201d Collins wrote on social media Saturday night, shortly after the shooting.<\/p>\n
The America First Policy Institute, a key outside group that seeks to elevate the policies embraced by Trump, held a virtual prayer vigil at 9 p.m. Saturday night. Religious leaders offered prayers. One said that there was no question that God had intervened to spare Trump\u2019s life. Another thanked God that Melania Trump is not a widow.<\/p>\n
As he led a prayer on behalf of the rally attendee who lost their life, Frank Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life, spoke of the attack on Trump as an attack on \u201call of us,\u201d echoing Trump\u2019s routine claims of martyrdom.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recall the words that President Trump always says to us: It\u2019s not that they are coming after him,\u201d Pavone said. \u201cThey are coming after us \u2014 all of us \u2014 he\u2019s just standing in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brinkley said that the timing of the shooting \u2014 on the eve of the Republican convention in Milwaukee \u2014 underscores similarities between Trump and former president Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1912 was seeking to return to the presidency, and was shot while campaigning in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n
Brinkley said that Roosevelt, who was shot in the chest, declared, \u201cIt takes more than a bullet to kill a Bull Moose\u201d and \u201ckept on speaking, delivering a stemwinder before he went to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing of Trump, going to Milwaukee, where Theodore Roosevelt was shot \u2014 Trump has the biggest possible stage,\u201d Brinkley said.<\/p>\n
Steve Schmidt, a former Republican strategist and prominent Trump critic, agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe political consequences of this assassination attempt will be immense, and they will benefit Donald Trump, who just responded to being shot in the exact same way that Teddy Roosevelt did,\u201d Schmidt wrote on social media.<\/p>\n
Isaac Arnsdorf, Maeve Reston and Michael Scherer contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A shooting at former president Donald Trump\u2019s campaign rally Saturday evening \u2014 which is being investigated as an assassination attempt \u2014 upended the already dark and tumultuous race for the White House. Trump\u2019s campaign said he still plans to attend the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to begin in Milwaukee on Monday. But the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}