The assassination attempt of Donald Trump is expected to change how both President Joe Biden and Trump spend the next few months leading up to the November election.
July 13, the day of the assassination attempt, is one that Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks will never forget.
“It was a horrific day, terrible events,” she said. “I think all of us have unity in the fact that we condemn political violence.”
Iowa State University political science professor Mack Shelley said it could be both a good and bad thing for Biden.
On one hand, it could draw the focus off of questions about his age and instead shift the focus on the assassination attempt. On the other hand, the argument could be made that Trump is strong after surviving this, renewing calls for Biden to resign.
Shelley added that Biden will likely end his personal attacks on Trump, specifically that the former president is a threat to democracy.
“Biden is just going to have a hard time getting some consistent message across for a while now,” Shelley said.
Instead, Shelley said, Biden will likely focus on what he’s accomplished the past four years and attack Trump's policies.
“Biden has to lay low on the punches for a couple of weeks, maybe even longer. It doesn’t leave that much to play catch up.”
On the other side of the aisle, Shelley expects Trump's team will use the incident as a way to highlight the former president’s strength to voters.
“I must have already seen hundreds of postings from Trump’s team or supporters about him being a survivor, being strong, being resilient and the implication that this is who you want to elect the next time around,” Shelley said.
Shelley said that the assassination attempt will likely excite loyal Trump supporters and could even help him win important swing states.
“With those battleground states, many are likely going to flip back in Trump’s column and away from Biden,” Shelley said. “Trump is already doing pretty well and he certainly gets a surge of sympathy.”
Miller-Meeks added that she still has a lot of unanswered questions about security at the Trump rally and how a sniper was able to get on top of a building.
She said she has talked with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson about investigating the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, and the U.S. Secret Service.