GOP: New threat to Trump will boost his campaign

Republican lawmakers think the second assassination attempt against former President Trump could give his struggling campaign a needed boost by energizing GOP voters and putting Democrats on the defensive over their warnings that his reelection represents a threat to democracy.

Republican senators are reluctant to talk about Trump’s latest brush with death in crass political terms, but they predict it will have a rallying effect within their party.

“I think people are going to rally to President Trump’s side. He’s under siege on so many fronts,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “It’s a Republican today, it could be a Democrat tomorrow. The system is broken.”

A second Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the political repercussions of a second assassination attempt predicted: “It will produce a rally-around effect.”

The lawmaker said independent voters are likely to see Trump as “a victim here.”

“I think that casts him in a more favorable light. That’s probably helpful to him. It’s something that breaks through with all voters. Who can not know about this?” the senator said. “It’s probably significant that way, but how long it will last, I don’t know.”

Republicans say Trump got a big political boost after narrowly dodging an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pa., in July, and some think it played into President Biden’s decision to drop out of the race a week later.

When Republicans gathered in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention a few days after the first assassination attempt, they were unified in a way they hadn’t been in years. The multiday event was capped off by Trump’s dramatic appearance to accept the party’s nomination with a white bandage on his right ear.

Since then, Trump has fallen behind in the polls as Democrats have rallied behind Vice President Harris’s campaign for president.

The leads Trump had over Biden in the polls in several battleground states have disappeared over the past six weeks.  

Republican lawmakers see the latest incident as an opportunity for Trump to shift the dynamic of the presidential race a week after many of them came away disappointed by his only debate against Harris.

They have repeatedly vented their frustration over Trump’s lack of message discipline, something that was on full display on the debate stage when he got sidetracked by Harris’s claim that people leave his rallies early because of “boredom.”

They think the latest attempt on Trump’s life will put him in a more sympathetic light.

“It certainly helps,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “The thing that’s helped him the most is his response.”

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said what happened reminds people that Trump isn’t just a politician, “he’s also a husband, he’s a father, he’s a grandfather.”

Trump has appeared uncowed by the attempts on his life.

He defiantly raised his fist in the air as Secret Service agents pulled him off the stage in Butler with blood spilling down the side of his face. The image quickly went viral and rallied Republicans heading into the convention.

Trump stuck a similarly defiant stance after Secret Service agents rushed to his side amidst the sound of gunfire on the fifth hole of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla.

“I AM SAFE AND WELL!” he wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. “Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER!”

Trump’s golfing partner later told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that Trump told Secret Service agents he really wanted to finish the hole because he had a putt to make birdie.

Trump received calls from Biden and Harris, who personally expressed their concerns and sympathies.

Democrats acknowledge Sunday’s news could shake up the race in unpredictable ways, noting that only a few thousand votes may decide who wins in key states.  

“It certainly helps him. The first assassination attempt helped him,” said a Democratic senator, who requested anonymity to discuss the political reverberations of Sunday’s events.

Polls conducted by Florida Atlantic University’s Political Communication Lab found Trump received a bump in support among voters in Virginia and Georgia after the first assassination attempt.

But the Democratic lawmaker argued the ugly episode raises bigger issues than how it may change voters’ views.

“The concern should be: Is violence becoming acceptable in the United States in our political discourse?” the senator said. “Trump has done as much as anyone to make campaigns less peaceful.”

The Democrat said members of his party may need to tone down their anti-Trump rhetoric for the remainder of the campaign.

“How should we respond?” the source said. “I don’t think either side should be using quite the sharp edges we’ve seen the last few months. Clearly the country is on edge and deeply divided. I think we should maybe soften our language.”

Other Democrats expressed their disgust at the thwarted attack on Trump and said they are willing to provide more money to the U.S. Secret Service to provide better security for the former president.

“There’s no room for this kind of garbage in politics. It’s not good, it’s not healthy,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who faces a tough reelection race in Montana, where Trump has a big lead in the polls.

“It’s terrible. We’re all upset by it. It’s very disquieting,” said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

Some Republicans used the latest threat to Trump’s life to put Democrats on the defensive.

“We’re really tired of it as Republicans. At the end of the day, there’s been a systematic effort to say that President Trump is destroying our country, democracy will end. I wish that would stop,” Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies, said Tuesday.

“The line of attack against President Trump that he will destroy this country and America will cease to exist needs to stop,” he urged.

Asked Tuesday if Democrats would down their anti-Trump rhetoric, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters he and his colleagues would continue to highlight the differences between Trump and Harris.

“The bottom line is that our Democratic Senate has drawn very clearly the differences between the Republican Party, Donald Trump and what we believe in. We’ll continue to do that,” he said.