Trump and Harris get back on the trail after another campaign-shaking moment
By Eric Bradner, CNN
(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump is set to hold his first rally Tuesday night since the second apparent assassination attempt of the former president, traveling to Flint, Michigan, for what’s being billed as a town hall hosted by his former White House press secretary, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, will sit for an interview in Philadelphia with the members of the National Association of Black Journalists – a major unscripted moment for a candidate who has largely stuck tightly to her message. It’s the same group to whom Trump falsely said weeks ago that Harris only “happened to turn Black” in recent years.
The events come in the wake of the Secret Service on Sunday preventing a potential shooter from firing at Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course — stopping what could have been the second attempt on the former president’s life. They’ll offer a window into how the next phase of the campaign could play out — particularly for Trump, who is traveling to Michigan for an event that had been aimed at criticizing President Joe Biden and Harris’ record in one of the nation’s most important swing states.
Trump on Monday unleashed a series of attacks, blaming Harris and Biden for this latest apparent attempt on his life. He argued Monday to Fox News Digital, in his first interview since the incident, that “their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at” and that they are “the real threat.” He similarly lambasted the Democratic president and vice president on his Truth Social website.
Biden conceded after the first assassination attempt it was a “mistake” to tell supporters he wanted to “put Trump in a bull’s-eye,” but neither he nor Harris showed any signs they would ease off their warnings about the danger Trump posed to democracy. At last week’s debate, Harris cited the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, the riots in Charlottesville and Trump’s prediction of a “bloodbath” should he lose as examples of his dangerous rhetoric. “Let’s turn the page on this,” she urged.
Trump also has a long history of incendiary rhetoric and violent imagery – a point some Democrats made Monday. Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell said at a canvassing event for Harris’ campaign that Trump “plays to people’s fear, he plays to people’s anxiety. He defines us with hate and fear.”
“This violence has to stop, but we also need to understand who and what he is and how much he is contributing to it,” Dingell said.
Harris’ campaign on Monday sought to avoid discussing the apparent assassination attempt in a political manner. While the White House did not respond directly to Trump’s accusation that Sunday’s would-be shooter was acting upon his belief in “the rhetoric of Biden and Harris,” few aides believed the former president was speaking in good faith.
Both Biden and Harris maintained their plans Monday following Sunday’s incident in Florida, a stark change from when Biden’s campaign pulled down its political advertising and canceled planned campaign travel by the president and vice president following the first attempt on Trump’s life over the summer.
State of the 2024 race
It’s a precarious moment for Trump’s campaign, with the first ballots going out at a time when the polling lead he held for the first half of the year has evaporated and his fundraising advantage is gone.
Harris exited last week’s ABC debate with momentum, with 63% of debate-watchers saying the vice president turned in a better performance on stage in Philadelphia to Trump’s 37%, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS.
A glaring warning sign for Trump came Sunday when a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted by Ann Selzer – one of the nation’s most respected pollsters, and an expert in the Hawkeye State – found that Trump’s lead in Iowa was just 47% to Harris’ 43% among likely voters. The former president was up 50% to 32% against Biden in June, the same poll found.
Iowa has not been expected to be a competitive state – Trump won there by 8 percentage points in 2020. But the poll found an uptick in the likelihood of voting among a number of Democratic-leaning groups, including women, college-educated Iowans, city-dwellers and those under age 45.
An ABC News and Ipsos poll released Sunday found Harris with a lead over Trump nationally, with 52% support among likely voters to Trump’s 46%. It also found a clear gender gap: Women who are likely to vote break for Harris 55% to 44%, while male likely voters split evenly, 49% for each.
How Trump reacted Sunday
Trump spent the hours after the apparent assassination attempt in Florida talking to allies and advisers on the phone, including while he was in lockdown at Trump International Golf Course. Multiple sources that spoke to him said that Trump seemed to be in good spirits.
One source said Trump joked at that he was two under par at the time of the shooting and said he was in the middle of a “wonderful game of golf.” Another source said Trump asked what was being said in the media about the apparent second assassination attempt. A third source, who was briefed on a conversation with the former president, said he was adamant that he was going to win in November.
Because of the circumstances around Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt, including Trump being quickly rushed to safety and placed under lockdown, Trump’s team was briefed far faster than they were after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, when some staff was left in limbo about Trump’s overall state for hours.
While some close to Trump said that they were initially startled by the news there had been shots fired near the former president, they were also told immediately that Trump was safe and in a secure location. Trump’s Secret Service team quickly briefed members of the campaign on what had transpired while Trump was still in lockdown, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
What was starkly different about the Butler shooting and the Florida attempt, though, was how quickly Trump pivoted to political attacks.
Following the shooting in Pennsylvania, the former president issued calls for unity – avoiding the immediate leap to political attacks that he made on Monday.
That July shooting occurred when Biden was still in the race and struggling to overcome his poor June debate performance. Days later, Biden would exit, Harris would clinch the Democratic nod to replace him and Trump’s lead would vanish.
Concerns about Harris’ safety
The apparent assassination attempt on Trump over the weekend, which has once again prompted bipartisan condemnation of political violence, is also likely to fuel concerns about Harris’ safety when she is out on the campaign trail.
The campaign has heard from numerous allies and supporters in recent weeks urging the team to avoid outdoor rallies altogether, believing that indoor events are much easier to secure, according to a source.
Harris’ rallies have largely been indoors, except for two occasions – at a venue in Wisconsin and at a brewery in New Hampshire. The latter event was especially exposed, resulting in a large, protective glass box around the podium. While outdoor rallies aren’t completely off the table, the campaign is expected to continue to host most of its rallies indoors, according to a source familiar.
The campaign, which for its part has been careful about trying to avoid any perception of politicizing Sunday’s incident in any way, is keenly sensitive to rhetoric that appears aimed at trying to incite violence against the former president.
At a campaign event in Michigan over the summer, following the first attempted assassination of Trump, Harris acknowledged the delicate balance campaigns are forced to strike amid heightened political rhetoric.
“On Sunday evening, our President Joe Biden issued a call for unity and there must be unity around the idea that while our nation’s history has been scarred by political violence, violence is never acceptable. There can be no equivocation about that,” she said at the July event.
“At the same time, the hallmark of American democracy – the hallmark of any democracy – is a strong competition of ideas, policies and a vision for the future. And just as we must reject political violence, we must also embrace a robust discussion about what is at stake in this election,” she added.
CNN’s Kristen Holmes, Priscilla Alvarez, MJ Lee, Kate Sullivan, Ali Main and Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
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