The assassination attempt that nearly killed former President Donald Trump shook the nation, but out of that moment came perhaps one of the most iconic images in our nation's history: a bloodied Trump, raising his fist defiantly in the air, flanked by Secret Service agents before the American flag, shouting "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
"Trump’s defiant pose, fist in the air as he was being led off the stage bleeding, will be the visual people remember at the polling booth when they think about Election 2024," observed pollster Frank Luntz. "It's hard to imagine either Biden or any of the potential Democratic candidates delivering full-throated crowd-pleasing attacks on the former President now, taking away most of their ability to play the Trump card by labeling him a 'threat to democracy' when he just survived a real threat to democracy."
Sure enough, Democrat strategists have seemingly thrown in the towel.
"We're so beyond f***ed," lamented a longtime Democratic insider.
"The presidential contest ended last night," said another veteran Democratic consultant. "Now it's time to focus on keeping the Senate and trying to pick up the House."
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Joe Biden's campaign had been in dire straits well before the failed assassination attempt. Biden had been trailing in the polls for months, his State of the Union address failed to reset his campaign, Trump's conviction in the sham New York trial only helped Trump, and then the debate put the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee in a death spiral, as calls for Biden to drop outgrew from within his own party and from his allies in the mainstream media.
Now the Biden campaign faces a major problem, as the foundation of its campaign strategy, dubbing Trump a fascist, a dictator, and a threat to democracy, has been completely undermined.
Last week, Biden said, “It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.” Rhetoric like this has been going on for years and didn't stop until after the assassination attempt.
"Most importantly, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, Trump is a threat to this nation," Biden said at a campaign rally in Detroit the day before Trump was shot at in Butler, Pa.
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The Biden campaign is essentially boxed in now, and that's a huge problem for them going forward. There's a reason why some Democratic strategists are declaring the race over and merely want to salvage their party's chances at holding Congress. With this kind of panic, it's easy to be lulled into a false sense that the results of the election are effectively set in stone now. They are not.
Despite the doom and gloom in the Democratic Party, we must not let our guard down. We know what the Democratic Party is capable of. Democratic governors completely upended the 2020 election by unilaterally changing election laws, and we know that left-wing groups are going to go to extreme lengths to bank as many votes as possible. This is not the time to be complacent. Keep fighting like we're five points behind.
