The new aggressive campaign strategy that Joe Biden's team has been working on for weeks has been paused. All advertising where the US president portrays rival Donald Trump as a threat to democracy has been quickly withdrawn after the assassination attempt.
After the shooting at Trump, Biden went out with a speech to the nation, toned down the political rhetoric and called for calm. The assassination attempt also made it impossible to launch the new, more aggressive campaign strategy that Biden's team has been working on for weeks.
It's an uncertain political week ahead, says Karin Henriksson, journalist and US expert.
"Signaling a new Trump"
What Trump says in his speech at the ongoing Republican Convention, where he is officially expected to be nominated as the party's presidential candidate, will be important, according to Henriksson.
He has signaled that it will be a new Trump who will be more unifying. The Democrats must relate to this. At the same time, Biden must go out and show that he is in good shape and clear in his mind. For Biden, every appearance is now a test of his mental health.
Biden's team has not yet decided when the advertising campaign against Trump will resume. But pausing the campaign was an easy decision.
Biden's team wants to see how Trump reacts and what the Republicans say during the week before deciding, says Henriksson.
For several weeks, the focus has been on Biden's age and health, after the debate at the end of June where he had noticeable difficulty formulating sentences, stumbled over words, and seemed weak. This has led to several high-ranking Democrats demanding that he step down as the Democratic presidential candidate.
Lost time
For Biden, the new situation means missed opportunities to show that he deserves to continue leading the country for another term.
This means two things, one can say. Partly, it's a reprieve for Biden as the demands for him to withdraw from the presidential campaign have subsided, says Henriksson.
But it also means lost time in campaigning when the idea was that the Democrats would go full throttle with lots of negative TV advertising about Trump when he's at his convention.
With 111 days left until the election, which takes place on November 5, 2024, the focus has so far been on the presidential candidates more than on their policies, according to Karin Henriksson.
But eventually, the issues must come into focus in the election campaign, it's two very different visions of how the US should be governed that Biden and Trump present.
