In a country already on edge, the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has angered his supporters, put a damper on the Democratic Party's re-election campaign and raised fears of future political violence in the run-up to the November election. Trump's Republican allies portrayed him as a hero on Saturday, with a bleeding ear and a raised fist, seemingly chanting: "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
While Trump regularly uses aggressive language in meetings with his supporters, the former president's advisers and associates have turned the words of his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, on the heels of the attempted assassination.
"What happened today is not just an isolated incident. The Biden campaign has been about President Donald Trump being an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That message leads directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump," said Ohio Senator J.D. (James David) Vance, one of Trump's leading vice presidential candidates.
Biden quickly sought to defuse the situation, condemning the attack as unacceptable political violence and halting campaign ads attacking Trump. "There is no place for this kind of violence in America. "This is malicious," Biden told reporters.
The shooter's motive is still unclear. The suspect (who was killed - ed.) - 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Battle Park, Pennsylvania, was registered as a Republican on the electoral rolls. At the same time, he donated $15 to a fundraising committee for left-wing politicians and members of the Democratic Party.
In the short term, this attack will likely win Trump sympathy when he appears next week in Milwaukee, at the Republican National Convention, where he is to receive his party's presidential nomination, concretizing the resentment and separation of his supporters from the caste of politicians in the country.
Hours after the shooting, Trump's campaign released a text urging voters to contribute to his campaign. "They're not after me, they're after you," the message reads.
Billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Ackman are among those who rushed to support Trump. "I fully support President Trump and hope for his speedy recovery", Musk wrote on his social network "Ex".
Chris Lasivita, co-chairman of Trump's campaign, said on "Ex" that "for years, even today, left-wing activists, Democratic Party donors, and now even Joe Biden have spoken out outrageously about /.../ Donald Trump /.../, it's high time they were held accountable /.../ and it's best to do so through the ballot box". The lasciviousness was apparently referring to Biden's recent statements, made in the context of his supporters' demand that he focus on Trump rather than his own public performance.
"So, we're done with the debates, it's time to throw Trump into the eye of the storm," said Biden, who has always condemned political violence.
POLITICAL ATTACKS
The United States is grappling with the most significant and sustained increase in political violence since the 1970s. Of the 14 fatal political attacks since Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which the perpetrator or suspect had clear partisan bias, 13 have been by right-wing assailants. One is politically left-leaning.
Despite being president, Trump has campaigned as an outsider rebel, complaining that he has long been targeted by the "deep state" and the Biden administration, who want to prevent him from returning to power. He has typically used violent, derogatory and even apocalyptic rhetoric, warning of a "bloodbath" if he is not elected and saying that illegal immigrants in the United States "poison the blood of the nation".
Some Republicans have already reacted to his constant fanning the flames. "If the country wasn't a powder keg before, it is now," said Chip Felkel, a Republican activist in South Carolina who opposes Trump.
Brad Bannon, a Democratic Party strategist, said the shooting could be politically beneficial for Trump because it feeds into his campaign message that the country is off the rails. "The assassination attempt creates sympathy for Trump" Bannon said. "It also reinforces his message to voters that there is something fundamentally wrong with this nation. It's a message that drives support for him," he added.
Many voters have already turned away from both Biden and Trump. The chaos surrounding the candidates could lead voters to believe that the nation's problems are irreparable and that the partisan divide cannot be bridged. U.S. Congressman Steve Scalise, a Republican who was shot in 2017, told "Fox News" that campaign messages inciting violence must end. (BTA)
Translation from English: Ivo Tasev, BTA