In the weeks following his disastrous debate performance, Democrats have been desperate to shift attention away from Joe Biden and back to Donald Trump. That happened Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot four people*, killing one, but not the one he was aiming at. That guy, the 45th President of the United States, emerged bloodied but defiant, and that’s not the Trump the Dems were looking for.
Crooks, who crept across a rooftop while bystanders shouted to police and pointed at him for nearly a minute before he fired a shot, didn’t kill Trump, but according to some insiders, he might have killed Biden’s Campaign as well as Democrats dreams of keeping the White House.
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.”
That photo of Trump with his bloody face and his fist in the air is historic and epic in its cultural and political power. It is everything Joe Biden is not. Trump appears strong, defiant, and reliable under pressure. A scrapper for the people. Someone who will fight for them. You don’t have to agree, and neither do I, but the imagery is profound at a time when people know there’s something missing in the White House, perhaps even admitting there is a dangerous vacuum at the top.
Nature abhors, they say.
The Dem insiders are crapping kittens over it. They can’t escape these optics or a moment that elevates the opponent and diminishes the campaign that opposes him. It breeds respect and sympathy. Trump looks like the guy who could Make America Great Again (again!) to anyone who wants that or even suspects their life might be better in such a place.
Biden has problems with stages and stairs. There are no such moments in Joe’s past or future. His campaign is built on the Left’s violent rhetoric and fear of Trump, which might be inappropriate post-Butler, so what does Biden run on?
That he’s not Trump?
At the same time, the same insiders suggest they may not be able to replace Biden, and the logistics of seeing him across another finish line like 2020 may not be mathematically or logistically possible (if even medically possible). More states to flip makes the math harder.
That’s not to say they won’t try. If Democrats are anything, it is relentless.
Biden can milk the shooting to pretend the past eight years of Trump hate never happened, but when your campaign was I’m not Trump, after last Saturday, the question might be, why not?
*Corey Comperatore died on the scene.
*David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, are hospitalized and listed in stable condition.