Seismic shift for Trump in 2024 race as Democrats’ rhetoric, presidential debate, lawfare backfire

A seismic shift has occurred in the 2024 presidential race as the Democrats’ rhetoric, debate performance, and persistent lawfare against former President Donald Trump have appeared to backfire on them, with support for him continuing to increase, including after the assassination attempt.

Trump has been called a “threat to democracy” by Democrats, charged with numerous felony counts in federal and state cases, debated President Joe Biden with CNN moderators, and survived an assassination attempt, all of which have appeared to backfire on Democrats in the presidential race and increase the former president's popularity as he runs to return to the White House.

Trump was shot at in an assassination attempt on Saturday during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., where a bullet grazed his right ear. One rally attendee, firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed during the shooting and two others were injured.

Following the shooting, both Elon Musk and former Obama supporter Bill Ackman announced their endorsements of Trump.

Both Biden and former President Barack Obama condemned political violence and wished Trump well after the assassination attempt.

Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh posted on the social media platform X on Sunday, “The calls to replace Biden will stop now. No Democrat can beat Trump. They’d rather have Biden lose to him than waste one of their up and coming stars on a fool’s errand. Biden’s job now is to lose, absorb all the blame, then shuffle off to the nursing home and disappear.”

While Democrats have attempted to hurt Trump’s chances of regaining the White House, they appear only to help the former president.

Heated rhetoric

Democrats have repeatedly used heated rhetoric and imagery regarding Trump, including in the days leading up to the attempted assassination.

Biden told donors in a call last Monday that it was “time to put Trump in a bullseye.”

"I have one job and that's to beat Donald Trump," Biden said. "I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye."

In an NBC News interview aired Monday, Biden was asked about his “bullseye” comment, as well as his statement that Trump is “an existential threat” during the same call. Biden clarified his comments, saying that by “bullseye,” he meant to “focus on” Trump.

“It was a mistake to use the word – I didn't say ‘crosshairs,’ I meant ‘bullseye.’ I meant focus on him, focus on what he’s doing, focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate,” Biden said.

“How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?” he later added.

On Sunday, Donald Trump, Jr., posted screenshots of two posts on the social media platform X from Biden’s account, including one from the day after the debate in June, which reads, “Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for.”

The son of the former president captioned his post, “Don't tell me they didn't know exactly what they were doing with this crap. Calling my dad a ‘dictator’ and a ‘threat to Democracy’ wasn't some one off comment. It has been the *MAIN MESSAGE* of the Biden-Kamala campaign and Democrats across the country!!!”

In 2018, referencing the “Access Hollywood” video of Trump, Biden said, “They asked me would I like to debate this gentleman, and I said no. I said, ‘If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.’”

Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who Trump announced as his running mate on Monday, posted on X after the assassination attempt on Saturday, “Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination.”

Presidential debate

Ahead of the CNN presidential debate between Biden and Trump, the former president said he accepted the debate, despite the terms being disadvantageous, because he believed the network thought he would not accept.

“You know, they offered me this debate and they thought I wouldn't take it because it's on CNN. It's Fake Tapper, does anyone know Fake Tapper?” Trump said at a town hall event in Arizona earlier this month. “And I said I'll take it, I'll take it -- because you know what? They thought I wouldn't take it, being on CNN and Dana Bash is very tough to Trump.”

“So I said, I'll take it. They thought what was gonna happen is that I'd say I won't do it, and then they'll say, ‘Trump doesn't want a debate.’ I want a debate,” he insisted. “We should have many debates, frankly.”

The CNN presidential debate saw Biden draw considerable scrutiny from both sides of the aisle over his frequent mumblings, lengthy stares, and often vacant expressions, which collectively renewed concerns over his physical and mental fitness for office.

Following the debate, a CNN poll found that 67% of debate watchers said Trump outperformed Biden, compared to 33% who said Biden outperformed Trump.

The poll also found that 59% of respondents had “no real confidence” in Biden’s “ability to lead the country,” while 44% said the same about Trump. After Biden's performance, many Democrats called for Biden to drop out of the presidential race. As of Friday, 18 congressional Democrats had said the president should end his reelection effort. Despite the calls to drop out, Biden has repeatedly asserted that he will stay in the race.

Prior to the assassination attempt on Saturday, Trump was leading Biden in the RealClearPolitics Poll Average by 2.7 points.

Lawsuits

On Monday, federal Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.

The judge ruled that no federal statute cited by the Justice Department authorized the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith by the Attorney General, meaning he has no authority to prosecute the case. 

Following the dismissal of the classified documents case in Florida, FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin posted on the social media platform X, “This isn't over... but yet another of the Leftist snares has snapped shut without catching their prey. @realDonaldTrump is probably the most attacked man in history, and that was even before someone tried to kill him this weekend.”

Smith’s separate case against Trump in Washington, D.C., where the former president has been charged with four counts related to his conduct on January 6, had already been delayed indefinitely pending an appeal to the Supreme Court on presidential immunity grounds.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s case is currently on pause.

Meanwhile, on July 2, the sentencing in the “hush money” trial brought against Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was delayed until Sept. 18, after initially being set for July 11, four days before the start of the Republican National Convention.

Following Trump’s conviction of 34 felony counts in the “hush money” trial in May, his campaign website crashed, due largely to the volume of attempted donations, the campaign confirmed. The Trump campaign announced the next day that it had raised $34.8 million in small-dollar donations, but later updated the total to $52.8 million. 

Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire donated $300,000 to Trump’s presidential campaign after the verdict, but he wasn’t the only Silicon Valley mogul to donate to the former president’s reelection effort. A week after the conviction, a San Francisco fundraising event with over 100 attendees raised $12 million for Trump. Donors repeatedly cited the “lawfare” against Trump as being a reason for their support for him.