As far as the 2024 presidential election is concerned, it is something of an understatement to point out that the attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump has 1) sucked all the oxygen out of the room and 2) made the Joe Biden campaign effort irrelevant. And on Sunday morning, only hours after the attempt on Donald Trump’s life, some of the president’s allies are pointing out that there is little point in any further attempt to replace Joe Biden at the head of the Democrat ticket.
They may well be right.
The effort to replace President Biden as the Democratic Party’s 2024 nominee has lost all momentum and is essentially “over” following the assassination attempt against former President Trump, allies of the president say, according to a new report.
A steady stream of Democratic lawmakers and top donors had called on Biden to drop out of the race throughout last week and the weekend. Allies of Biden now say Trump’s attempted slaying has taken the wind from the sails of Biden’s critics.
“I think it’s over,” one ally to the president told NBC News. “You just lose all momentum.”
“They were having a very bad political day, and then we had this supernova event. Now, it’s frozen,” one Democratic strategist told the outlet. “If you’re an advocate for: ‘How do we tell the old man it’s time to go?’ – it’s really hard to have that conversation publicly. This event blocks out the sun right now.”
This event does indeed block out the sun. Here’s why.
As I wrote shortly after the event, this is the image that changed everything. This couldn’t be more powerful if it had been deliberate, planned, and posed: Trump, bloodied but defiant, fist raised, calling out to the crowd. The American flag behind him, seemingly upside-down, which is a sign of a nation in distress. The Secret Service agents formed a wall of bodies around the former president to take a bullet for him if necessary. This, folks, is Pulitzer Prize-level photography. And this image, an image of defiance in the face of an attempted assassination, couldn’t present a more stark contrast when set alongside tired, pale, befuddled old Joe Biden.
This moment changed the entire face of the campaign.
Previously on RedState: Biden Addresses Nation After Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump
The Show WILL Go On: Trump, RNC Announce Convention to Proceed Despite Horrific Assassination Attempt
The Democrats’ usual rhetoric will now be throttled for a time. Oh, there will always be far-left loons who are now bemoaning the fact that the gunman missed, and I will not dignify those idiots by linking to or embedding their hate here. But elected Democrats will be subdued for a few days, maybe a few weeks, and there will be no more remarks about, for instance, “putting Trump in the crosshairs.”
And those who have been calling for President Biden to step away from the campaign, to let someone who has a greater chance of stopping the Trump Express, have little or no reason to keep calling for any such concession. The game’s as good as over unless something dramatic happens – something at least as dramatic as what happened yesterday in Pennsylvania. They may as well let Joe Biden have his last hurrah.
Old Joe has been defiant in the face of these efforts all along.
“It’s likely the effort to dislodge Biden has ended. He’s not going to voluntarily step aside in this moment,” another Biden ally told the outlet. “Biden demonstrated he’s going to fight.”
Oh, he will fight, but it’s a safe bet that even his inner circle has a pretty good idea that it’s over. They won’t admit as much; they will be defiantly stating, right to the end, that they think the Big Guy will win this thing. That’s what they are expected to do. That’s what they have to do. But Joe Biden won’t win this thing. Not now. And that’s why there’s little or no reason to make any further effort to replace Joe Biden as their presidential candidate.
Loathe as I am to offer the Democrats advice, they would be well-advised to let Joe Biden have his shot, take the L, and let old Joe fade away into the sunset. They should concentrate on team-building, on finding candidates that have appeal beyond the urban cohorts, the coastal elites, and the radical left “progressives.”
Maybe they could even take their party back to something Harry Truman would recognize.
