Politics waits for nothing and no person. In attempting to grasp the levers of power, there's no time off, no vacationing, barely a chance to sleep.
So no one is shocked that both sides are, in all insincerity, wishing the best for Donald Trump while figuring out how to either control the damage as much as possible or take advantage of a heaven-sent opportunity to bludgeon the opposition into the ground.
Democrats are already circling the wagons. Their overly effusive expressions of sympathy for Trump while chastising those who perpetrate political violence would be believable except everyone with two brain cells working knows that their rhetoric, if not intentionally designed to engineer an attempt on Trump's life, has created the conditions where some nut with a gun could put Trump in the crosshairs.
Republicans have a far more difficult task. There are already some Republicans who are directly blaming the Democrats. This is unnecessary. Republicans need to dial the rhetoric back and let the Democrats break the peace treaty first. Knowing the Democrats and the hyper-partisan times we live in, it won't be long before the Democrats are blaming Trump for his own assassination attempt.
This is why Trump must tread carefully. It appears to me that he has realized this and has made all the right noises so far in thanking the Secret Service and local police for their efforts; expressing sympathy for the family of Corey Comperatore, the dead rallygoer; and refraining from attacking Democrats for inspiring the shooter even though, knowing Trump, he must be sorely tempted.
If he goes into the convention with this kind of humble attitude while adding a little partisan fire, Joe Biden will be gone by next week.
Jim Treacher and I are on the same wavelength. Referring to the iconic photo of Trump pumping his fist and mouthing "fight," Treacher, as much an anti-Trumper as I am, couldn't resist gushing about the image.
"Regular readers of this newsletter, and people who hate my guts, don’t need to be told my opinion of Donald Trump. And speaking as someone who has managed to stay off the Trump Train for the past eight years: This kicks a**."
The guy almost gets his brains blown out on live TV, and he stands up with blood on his face and pumps his fist in defiance. I think he said, “Fight!” Or maybe some other F-word. Whatever it was, it was awesome.
It may be the most American thing I’ve ever seen with my own eyes.
Whatever you may think of him as a person, or as a past and probably future president, Trump showed us who he is in a moment of crisis.
And not a “crisis” like global warming or a Supreme Court ruling or the price of almond milk at Starbucks, but the crisis of actually getting hit in the head by a would-be assassin’s bullet.
Remarkable. My non-MAGA hat is off to him.
"The shooter wasn’t just evil, but stupid. He just handed the election to the guy he wanted to kill."
"How does Trump lose after this?" asks Treacher.
Good question. And the professional politicians are also sure that the event handed Trump a potential LBJ-style landslide.
“President Trump survives this attack — he just won the election,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) told Politico in a brief interview shortly after the shooting.
“This will energize the base more than anything. And he, you know — with his fist in the air and he didn’t want to leave. And he’s yelling, fight, fight, fight. That’ll be the slogan,” said Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.).
It’s not just Republicans like Van Orden and Burchett in safer red districts that are predicting the political aftermath will highly motivate their voters in November.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.), who represents a battleground district, said that while he believed issues like border security and the economy were already going to “lead Trump to victory,” the fallout from the shooting “no doubt makes people want to come out.”
Less than four months before election day, and Donald Trump is sitting pretty.
