Trump, Biden Seek Calm As Republicans Gather After Shooting

Photo (Left): President Joe Biden delivers an address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on July 14. Photo: Reuters/ Erin Schaff
Photo (Right): Donald Trump being rushed by Secret Service agents after the shooting. Trump has struck a statesmanlike posture since, talking of unity.

By Gram Slattery and Tim Reid

MILWAUKEE, WI (REUTERS) – Donald Trump’s Republican Party convened here hoping to chart his return to the White House after he survived an assassination attempt that prompted him and President Joe Biden, his Democratic rival, to call for national unity and calm. Trump will announce at the convention this week his choice for a running mate.

While the event will be a festive affair to formally choose the party’s presidential nominee, it occurs at a tense moment in U.S. history on the road to the election rematch between Biden, 81, and Trump, 78.

Will party leaders scheduled to speak over the next four days try to cool tempers among Republicans? Or will they use the occasion to accuse Democrats of demonizing Trump as a threat to democracy and making him a target for political violence?

“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner, in what took the nation by surprise.

Biden, too, in a televised address from the White House on July 14 said, “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 normalized.”

He said: “The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down.”

Trump and Biden are locked in a close election rematch, according to most opinion polls including by Reuters/Ipsos. The shooting whipsawed discussion around the presidential campaign, which had been focused on whether Biden should drop out following a halting June 27 debate performance.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, the country’s highest-ranking Republican,told NBC on July 14 that all Americans needed to tone down their rhetoric even while he accused Biden’s campaign of making hyperbolic attacks on Trump. The Democratic campaign has pulled down its ads after the shooting.

Biden condemned the assassination attempt. He ordered an investigation into Saturday’s shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in which Trump’s right ear was grazed by a bullet, one supporter was killed and two others were wounded before Secret Service agents shot dead the 20-year-old suspected gunman whose motive has yet to be clarified. He was a registered Republican.

Trump has frequently turned to violent rhetoric in his campaign speeches, using the word “bloodbath”, labeling his perceived enemies as “vermin” and “fascists,” and accusing Biden without evidence of a conspiracy to overthrow the United States by encouraging illegal immigration.

For Trump, the convention represents a test.

Having consolidated party control, Trump could seize on the prime-time opportunity to deliver a unifying message or paint a dark portrait of a nation under siege by a corrupt leftist elite, as he has done at times on the trail.

“Trump’s convention speech is going to be his introduction to the general public, to the people who aren’t following politics closely. I think he will have even more eyeballs on him (because of the assassination attempt),” said Nachama Soloveichik, a Republican strategist who worked on Nikki Haley’s unsuccessful 2024 presidential campaign.

“I would say the message should be one of de-escalation and also reminding people that America is better than that.”

In an internal memo to campaign staff on Sunday, which was obtained by Reuters, co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said the campaign would adopt additional security measures in the wake of the assassination attempt. They also called on staff to refrain from using “dangerous rhetoric.”

“We condemn all forms of violence, and will not tolerate dangerous rhetoric on social media,” they wrote.

Meanwhile, Biden said he had ordered a review of the security arrangements at the RNC and thousands of armed law enforcement agents roamed streets that were otherwise largely empty as delegates streamed in from around the country.