The presidential campaign moves forward after another apparent attempt on Trump’s life
NEW YORK — Monday marks 50 days until the 2024 presidential election, a campaign that even before then was among the most turbulent in American history. Donald Trump confronted with a apparent assassination attempt for the second time.
The possible attempt on Trump’s life came nine weeks after the former Republican president’s death. hit by a bullet during a meeting in Pennsylvania. It cast a shadow over a presidential race already marked by upheaval. And it comes as early voting begins in some states.
According to Douglas Brinkley, a historian at Rice University, the “deeply disturbing” event, which comes on top of an already dramatic year with elections approaching, has created “a kind of uncertainty across the country.”
Brinkley said: “2024 has just unfolded in a chaotic and terrifying way. It is impossible for anyone to get a foothold in their daily lives with a news cycle that is so consistently grim and absurd.”
Trump was scheduled to be at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Monday, a person familiar with his schedule said. That now includes a one-on-one briefing from Ronald Rowe, acting director of the Secret Service, the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said. Rowe arrived in West Palm Beach on Monday morning.
On Monday night, Trump is expected to speak about cryptocurrency live on social media site X for the launch of his sons’ crypto platform, followed by an expected return to the campaign trail on Tuesday for a town hall in Flint, Michigan. Later in the week, he has appearances in New York, Washington and North Carolina.
Vice-Chairman Kamala HarrisMeanwhile, she was scheduled to meet with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters at the group’s 1.3 million-member headquarters in Washington on Monday, as the Democratic presidential candidate hopes for another union endorsement. She was scheduled to campaign in the swing state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday and speak in Washington, Michigan and Wisconsin later in the week.
Their return to the campaign trail is likely to be clouded by questions about the gunman who was attacked by Secret Service agents on the former president’s golf course in Florida. The FBI was leading the investigation and working to determine a motive.
In addition to the first attempt to assassinate Trump, in which he was struck by a bullet at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, the campaign has been rocked over the past six months by Trump’s historic criminal trial and conviction; the crisis and eventual demise of Democratic President Joe Biden’s campaign after his failed debate performance; and Harris’s invasion, which fundamentally changed the race.
In August, Trump’s campaign announced it had been hacked, saying Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. The Justice Department is preparing criminal charges in connection with the hack.
Some Trump allies on Sunday accused Democrats of saying Trump was a threat to American democracy and tried to tie those arguments to the arrest of a suspect on Sunday. Investigators have not commented on the suspect’s possible motives.
Trump himself has repeatedly faced criticism for his rhetoric. The former president amplified false rumors during the debate and in the days afterward that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were kidnapping and eating pets. The community evacuated schools and government buildings days later after bomb threats, adding to the sense of a particularly volatile and tense moment in America even before Sunday’s stunning development.
Republican strategist David Urban, a Trump ally, said it was too early to know how this would affect the coming days and weeks of the campaign. But in his conversations with people close to Trump’s orbit, he noted a deep sense of shock and uncertainty.
“We’ve said unprecedented so many times this year,” Urban said. “I don’t know if we can use the word anymore.”
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Associated Press journalist Steve Peoples in New York and Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.