Well, at least no one is talking about Joe Biden’s painful mental decline anymore, so they got that going for them.
Accompanying the sense of despair around President Biden’s re-election campaign seems to be a sense of relief that perhaps it’s time to throw in the towel for the presidency and focus on flipping the House and holding the Senate. The internal leaking and complaining among staffers and strategists for the White House and Biden campaign alike couldn’t be more depressing.
According to NBC News, the attitude is starting to shift internally with the understanding that Joe Biden still appears unmovable:
At a time when President Joe Biden has been struggling to shore up support with fellow Democrats following a miserable June debate performance and shaky cleanup effort, some professional Democratic political operatives said Saturday’s shooting will end up sealing the incumbent’s electoral fate.
“We’re so beyond f—ed,” one longtime Democratic insider said, noting that the image of Trump thrusting his fist in the air, with blood dramatically smeared across his face, will be indelible.
“The presidential contest ended last night,” said a veteran Democratic consultant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to give a candid assessment of his own party’s standing less than four months before the election.
“Now it’s time to focus on keeping the Senate and trying to pick up the House,” he said. “The only positive thing to come out of last night for Democrats is we are no longer talking about Joe Biden’s age today.”
The damage for Democrats is two-fold. For starters, they’re being forced to tone down their constant rhetoric that Donald Trump is an existential threat to the entire planet and must be stopped. That type of irresponsible garbage is what whips people into a frenzy and dehumanizes politics.
Furthermore, for a man who will supposedly be a dictator worse than Hitler, according to Biden, Democrats sent a lot of heartfelt condolences wishing the former President well and hoping for a quick recovery when a rooftop assassin tried to take his life on Saturday.
It’s hard to argue that Trump is a threat to the nation while also sending him thoughts and prayers.
Democrats came to grips with this reality at record speed:
One Democratic strategist who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns and on Capitol Hill said that the physical targeting of Trump robs Biden of his main argument against the former president. Biden, the strategist pointed out, has tried to convince voters that Trump is so extreme that he presents a threat to democracy.
“That message is dead,” the strategist said, after a gunman tried to kill the presumptive nominee of one of the two major parties. The bullet that struck Trump “probably saved Biden’s nomination” by freezing Democratic calls for him to step aside and “doomed his re-election.”
Beyond that, the nature of the gruesome and deadly events on Saturday is a testament to Trump’s strength and resilience. Standing up from the stage amid Secret Service agents and raising his arm was perhaps the final defiant fist in the air to the political establishment that he would not stop fighting for the country. Ever.
If there is a silver lining for Joe Biden right now it’s that plans to oust him seem stalled with no real direction as to who would replace him. He doesn’t want to drop out so he’s not going to. Instead, Democrats are reaching the acceptance stage of grief realizing the Biden re-election bid is likely a sinking ship.
The Babylon Bee sums up the satirical cul-de-sac Democrats trapped themselves in:
Party That Called Trump 'Hitler' For 8 Years Shocked As Someone Tries To Assassinate Him https://t.co/9zTv1SsnMc pic.twitter.com/Wr5BNapizb
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) July 13, 2024
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