US elections: Trump tries to regain spotlight after 2nd assassination bid

By Nancy Cook and Stephanie Lai
 

Donald Trump is poised to capitalise on the second attempt on his life in recent months, using the shocking development to try to snatch back the political momentum that Vice President Kamala Harris has enjoyed.
 

By portraying Trump as a fighter and survivor, his campaign hopes to capture Americans’ fractured attention and lay the blame for yet another assassination attempt on Harris and Democrats.

Trump told Fox News in an interview Monday that Harris’ “highly inflammatory” rhetoric inspired the gunman, a claim for which he did not provide any evidence. The FBI has not yet provided details on the would-be shooter’s motive.

The timing of the foiled assassination attempt on Sunday, while the former president was on the golf course at his West Palm Beach club, came at a key moment of weakness for the Trump campaign. Allies had been attempting to tamp down post-debate narratives about Harris’ strong showing, controversy over Trump’s unfounded comments about immigrants eating pets and a new feud with pop star Taylor Swift.

Instead, the Republican presidential nominee can campaign this week as a figure unscathed by what he casts as evil forces looking to take him down. Trump will continue his campaign schedule this week — just 50 days out from Election Day — as planned, according to two people familiar with his itinerary. 

This week’s schedule will put him in close proximity of voters and allies, an arrangement known to boost Trump’s mood. He plans to launch a crypto platform Monday, followed by rallies in Michigan and New York on Tuesday and Wednesday, a speech to a pro-Israeli group in Washington and then a rally in North Carolina on Saturday to cap off the week.

Harris is also planning a series of events in swing states this week. Polls show Trump and Harris virtually tied and within the margin-of-error in major battleground states. Despite pundits and polls largely showing Harris won last week’s presidential debate, the forum did not greatly alter the dynamics of the race and the two candidates are still vying for support from a tiny sliver of the electorate that remains undecided.

Security review
 

Ensconced at his private club Mar-a-Lago on Monday, Trump met with Ronald Rowe, the acting director of the Secret Service, in the afternoon. Rowe is the replacement for Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned after the first assassination attempt on Trump’s life in July.

Just two months ago, a bullet grazed Trump’s ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, two days before the Republican National Convention. Following that shooting, Trump called for unity across the country.

However, that was short-lived as Trump’s RNC acceptance speech struck similar themes to his rally speeches.

“The damage that he’s done to this country is unthinkable,” Trump said of President Joe Biden, his then opponent, in the convention address.

Trump is already using the latest attempt on his life as a way to cudgel his Democratic opponent. 

“Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Harris and Biden have condemned political violence after both attacks. 

“In America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box, not at the end of a gun,” Biden said Monday.  He went on to commend the Secret Service, before adding that they were assessing whether adjustments needed to be made to the former president’s security detail.

The president spoke with Trump and “and conveyed his relief that he is safe,” White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Emilie Simons wrote on X Monday evening. She said the two men “shared a cordial conversation and former President Trump expressed his thanks for the call.”

The second assassination attempt has provided the Trump campaign an opportunity to fuel fundraising, which slowed as Harris gained in the polls. The Trump campaign sent out several messages to donors in the immediate aftermath while supporters expressed a sense of outrage.

“The President is more determined than ever to win,” said Ed McMullen, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Switzerland. “His supporters are furious and determined to win because the narrative the Democrats — extremists — have used for the past near decade has caused the unhinged left to react with violence.”

Trump, the first former US president convicted of a felony, has drawn criticism for his own language during the campaign, including attacks questioning Harris’ racial identity and on immigrants. Trump’s legal woes include a case involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, which culminated in supporters rioting at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

New precautions
 

On Sunday, the Trump campaign locked down its campaign headquarters in West Palm Beach. Top campaign aides Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles sent staff an email Sunday night urging them to “remain vigilant” as they went about their daily routines.

“As we enter the last 50 days of President Trump’s campaign, we must remember that we will only be able to Save America from those who seek to destroy it by working together as one team,” the email said.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for greater protection for the former president, and Biden indicated that Trump may need more security personnel. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday said Congress is prepared to provide additional resources to the Secret Service. 

Rowe, speaking at a briefing on the investigation, said he was “confident that we will get what we need.”

“We cannot have failures. And in order to do that, we’re going to have some hard conversations with Congress,” he added.

Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida, called for more real-time information from federal authorities to counter conspiracy theories that divide the country.

“You have people in this country on the left who think the attempted assassination on former President Trump was staged, and you have people on the right who think it was the deep state, and that’s because they’re not getting any information,” he told MSNBC on Sunday.