Republican lawmakers think the second assassination attempt against former President Trump could give his struggling campaign a needed boost by energizing GPO voters and putting Democrats on the defensive over their warnings that his reelection represents a threat to democracy.
Republican senators are reluctant to talk about Trump’s latest brush with death in crass political terms, but they predict it will have a rallying effect within their party.
“I think people are going to rally to President Trump’s side. He’s under siege on so many fronts,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “It’s a Republican today, it could be a Democrat tomorrow. The system is broken.”
A second Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss the political repercussions of a second assassination attempt predicted: “It will produce a rally-around effect.”
The lawmaker said independent voters are likely to see Trump as “a victim here.”
“I think that casts him in a more favorable light. That’s probably helpful to him. It’s something that breaks through with all voters. Who can not know about this?” the senator said. “It’s probably significant that way, but how long it will last, I don’t know.”
Republicans say Trump got a big political boost after narrowly dodging an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pa., in July, and some think it played into President Biden’s decision to drop out of the race a week later.
When Republicans gathered in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention a few days after the first assassination attempt, they were unified in a way they hadn’t been in years. The multiday event was capped off by Trump’s dramatic appearance to accept the party’s nomination with a white bandage on his right ear.
