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Biden campaign swaps Trump criticism for unity after shooting
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden‘s reelection campaign quickly upended its strategy after an assassination attempt on Republican rival Donald Trump in western Pennsylvania, calling off verbal attacks on the former president to focus instead on a message of unity.
Within hours of Saturday’s shooting, Biden’s campaign was pulling down television ads and suspending other political communications, including those that had highlighted Trump’s May felony conviction in New York state court relating to hush money paid to a porn star to avert a sex scandal before the 2016 U.S. election.
“We must unite as one nation,” Biden said in White House remarks on Sunday, adding he would have an Oval Office address in the evening. Biden condemned political violence again, as he did on Saturday night, and asked Americans to “let the FBI do their job.”
A Biden campaign official said Biden, in his speech at 8 p.m. EDT on Sunday (midnight GMT on Monday), will stress a message of unity while pointing out his belief that Trump’s agenda is bad for the country. He will conduct an interview with NBC News on Monday.
Afterward, the Democratic National Committee and the campaign “will continue drawing the contrast between our positive vision for the future and Trump and Republicans’ backwards-looking agenda over the course of the week,” the official said.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison called Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley to offer help and try to bring down the political temperature, another campaign official said.
Some Republicans have blamed Biden, without evidence, for inspiring the shooting by criticizing Trump. The 20-year-old shooter was a registered Republican whose motive is unknown.
Biden’s advisers had hoped to tamp down recent calls from some of his fellow Democrats and others that he step aside and let another candidate represent the party in the Nov. 5 election, sharpening his focus on the dangers he has said Trump presents to U.S. democratic norms and reproductive rights as well as Trump’s false statements about winning the 2020 election.
“This changes everything,” one campaign official said of the assassination attempt. “We’re still assessing. Making the case against Trump, drawing that split screen, will get much harder.”
“The president is trying to lower the temperature,” the official added.
