Why the attempted assassination on Donald Trump will save and doom Joe Biden

The shocking assassination attempt on Donald Trump has likely stopped Joe Biden from quitting the race, but it may have fatally damaged his campaign.

In the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, it is hard to imagine Joe Biden will now drop out of the election race. It is also hard to imagine how he could win.

At times in the fortnight before Trump was shot, the President’s candidacy looked over. He was already losing to Trump before his disastrous debate performance played right into the Republican’s narrative: Trump as the strong leader to make America great again, and Biden as the weak and elderly man who let its problems spiral out of control.

Trump would never have factored in getting shot. But in that split second, his stunningly defiant response solidified the dichotomy Biden was struggling to overcome. Trump had been trying to make himself out to be a political martyr – and then he very nearly was one.

In the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, it is hard to imagine Joe Biden will now drop out of the election race. Picture: AFP

In this dark and divided time in the US, the Democratic push to replace Biden on their ticket is losing steam. Even if Trump had not been shot, it would have been a massive gamble.

Biden now has a crucial role to play as a national unifier. This was his mission when he ran for the presidency in 2020, and it must be said that he has failed.

“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again,” Biden said in his first speech as the president-elect.

“This is the time to heal in America.”

The attempted assassination of his opponent caps three and a half years that have been nothing like what the President pledged. For that, furious Republicans blame him.

Biden’s re-election strategy has rested on his assertion that Trump is a “genuine threat to our nation” – to freedom, to democracy, to “everything that America stands for”.

And while his rhetoric has strayed too far – he said last week it was “time to put Trump in the bullseye” – it is not as though these arguments are without merit.

When Trump lost in 2020, he refused to accept the results, tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, and fuelled the deadly riot at the US Capitol. No reasonable person can deny these actions shook the foundations of American democracy.

When Trump lost in 2020, he refused to accept the results, tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, and fuelled the deadly riot at the US Capitol. Picture: AFP

Trump has made no effort since to take down the temperature. He has done the opposite: vowing to free the January 6 “hostages”, falsely claiming Biden ordered the criminal charges against him, saying he would be a “dictator” on his first day if re-elected, arguing there might not be a country left if he was not.

If Biden’s rhetoric is overly aggressive, Trump’s is often downright apocalyptic.

None of this – absolutely none of this – could ever justify the attempt on Trump’s life. It is simply to say that history should not be rewritten in a bid to understand how the US arrived at this moment, especially when the 20-year-old gunman’s motive remains unknown.

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Biden is now pleading for unity. Therein lies what may be the fatal blow to his campaign: how does he make the case against Trump without being accused of pouring fuel on the fire?

The Republican has been playing the victim for months. Now, shockingly, he is.

Perhaps it will change his perspective – he says he ripped up the “extremely tough” speech he planned for this week’s Republican convention because he wants to “unite our country”.

Trump will win with that attitude. But he will also probably win if he keeps trying to divide the country, because the split currently seems beyond repair, and it’s no longer in Biden’s favour.