Biden planned to ramp up his attacks on Trump. Now those plans are in disarray

Washington: US President Joe Biden faces a delicate balancing act as America reels from the attempted assassination of his biggest political rival.

After weeks of post-debate dissent, Biden had planned to spend the next few weeks ramping up his attacks on Donald Trump in a bid to reassure Democrats he had the mental and physical capacity to beat the incendiary Republican at November’s election.

President Joe Biden attempted to calm Americans from the Oval Office after the attack on Donald Trump.Credit: AP

The strategy was simple enough: outline to voters the strength of his first-term achievements; present a bold vision for the future; and go on the offensive against Trump by presenting him as the largest single threat to democracy that America faces.

But an attempt on the former president’s life on Saturday (Sunday AEST) has upended everything.

Amid fears of escalating violence, Biden knows that the last thing he can afford to do is add to the simmering tensions of a country bristling with animosity, anger and fear.

To that end, his remarks in the Oval Office on Sunday night (Monday AEST) were about finding the appropriate tone to “lower the temperature in our politics”.

Secret Service agents surround Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after shots were fired. Credit: AP

Over six minutes, a presidential Joe Biden – far removed from the mumbling and stumbling version we saw on a debate stage last month – called for the nation to “take a step back” and unite.

He began by telling Americans he had spoken to Trump and was grateful the former president was doing well.

He urged people to “take stock of where we are, and how we go forward from here”.

On the issue of political violence, he reminded Americans there had been many examples on both sides of the aisle: the brutal attack on the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the right-wing plot to kidnap Democrat Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and now the attempt to kill a former president days before he was officially announced as the Republican candidate for the White House.

“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy. It’s part of human nature. But politics must never be a literal battlefield or, God forbid, a killing field,” Biden said, sitting behind the resolute desk he last used to address the nation in October about the Israel-Hamas war.

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can’t allow this violence to be normalised.”

In the aftermath of the shooting, the Biden campaign paused “outbound communications” and tried to quickly take down television attack ads targeting Trump.

On Sunday, the White House announced the president had postponed a planned trip to Texas on Monday (US time). Vice President Kamala Harris postponed a trip to Florida, while Attorney-General Merrick Garland halted a number of interstate trips to oversee the FBI probe into security measures at the rally.

Democrats have long accused Trump of encouraging political violence with his incendiary language and his refusal to turn down the temperature when it is needed most.

Now we have some Republicans blaming Biden for the assassination attempt by pushing a narrative of Trump as an authoritarian figure who would destroy democracy if he wins in November.

Indeed, within hours of the shooting, allies of Trump – from his campaign strategist Chris LaCivita, to his potential running mate J.D. Vance, and Florida senator Rick Scott – all attacked the left and suggested their rhetoric about Trump being a danger to society almost killed him.

“This isn’t some unfortunate incident,” Scott wrote on X. “This was an assassination attempt by a madman inspired by the rhetoric of the radical left.”

Biden, however, was having none of it.

Police snipers after shots were fired while Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was speaking.Credit: AP

“We do not know the motive of the shooter yet,” he said during his Oval Office address.

“We don’t know his opinions or affiliations. We don’t know whether he had help or support, or if he communicated with anyone else.

“Tonight, I want to speak to what we do know: a former president was shot and an American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing.

“We cannot, and we must not, go down this road in America.”

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