For over two weeks, President Biden had been haunted by a political storm of negative headlines about his age and a growing mutiny among Democrats seeking to boot him from the top of the ticket.
Then, on Saturday all of that was quickly thrust to the back-burner.
An assassination attempt against Biden’s rival, former President Donald Trump, in Butler, Penn. drew blood and came harrowingly close to killing him, putting the nation on edge. It immediately overshadowed any political efforts to re-top the Democrats’ ticket.
That assassination attempt “slows the momentum on people calling for him [Biden] to step aside,” a Dem. campaign operative told The Post.
“And at the very least, this coming week is now probably a wash on any effort to push him out,” the operative noted. “There’s only so many weeks.”
Democrats recognize the moment as politically fragile and have shifted their attention to what has now been the closest attempt on a president’s life since Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Both Biden, 81, and Trump called for national unity in the aftermath of the shooting. Biden cut short his weekend stay at Rehoboth Beach, Del., and called Trump to relay his well-wishes.
The Biden-Harris campaign quickly moved to halt its negative ads against Trump, 78, in a gesture of goodwill as the country reels from the attack, a source familiar confirmed.
“Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this,” Biden said Saturday evening.
Hours earlier in the day, he met with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who claimed to have “had a good meeting” with the president.
A day prior, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) huddled with Biden about “the path forward,” but was tight-lipped about what that meant and declined to dish on the meeting.
Thus far, at least 20 congressional Democrats have publicly called on Biden to pass the torch. This includes Rep. Marie Glusenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) who had a less point-blank call but strongly suggested he step aside.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) is the sole Democratic senator to make a public entreaty for Biden to step aside.
However, scores more of sitting Democratic lawmakers signaled unease with Biden in the aftermath of last month’s debate performance against Trump that amplified concerns about his age and mental acuity.
“I do believe right now unless there’s a major change, that there’s a high risk that we lose this election,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Col.) told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “We know how to fight and we know how to win these tough elections.”
But Crow also called for Democrats to pump the brakes on the consternation over Biden.
“On the heels of an attempted…. what appears to be an attempted assassination… by all the evidence that we’re seeing right now, we all need to take a step back, we all need to take a breather,” he added.
Many Democrats now appear to be of a similar mindset.
Since the assassination attempt against Trump Saturday, no more Democrats have come out publicly against Biden.
Time is rapidly running out to bump him off the presumptive party standard bearer. Biden had been slated to be virtually coronated within the coming weeks ahead of the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Meanwhile, Trump is set to be crowned the Republican Party nominee this week during the party’s national convention in Milwaukee, Wisc. from Monday through Thursday.
His campaign said that he was “fine” after the attack and the former president was seen on video walking off his Boeing 757, appearing to be in decent condition after the shooting.
One person — former Buffalo township fire chief Corey Comperatore — was killed in the rampage, while at least two others were severely wounded.
Authorities have named 20-year-old Pennsylvania Thomas Matthew Crooks as the main suspect and revealed that law enforcement killed him. The FBI is investigating the shooting as an assassination attempt.
