US President Joe Biden and his campaign team seem to have got an unexpected break in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last Saturday. Up until that moment Biden was said to be working the telephone lines trying to convince doubting members of his own party and donors that he indeed had the wherewithal to take on his Republican challenger.

Despite the shift in narrative, it’s still fuzzy if senior Democrats will want their President to run.

To expect a return of civility in the political realm is wishful thinking. The “cordial” telephone conversation between the 46th and the 45th Presidents in the aftermath of the shooting was perhaps a brief pause in exchanges that had clearly breached decency.

Even now as the top campaign members seem to be holding back, surrogates have unleashed conspiracy theories on the shooting in the absence of any firm motives the lone gunman may have had.

The shooting incident came at a time when Biden was under pressure to quit the race in the wake of a disastrous first debate with Trump. It was reported widely that former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, along with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the current House leader Hakeem Jeffries and senior Democrats, went into a huddle to explore the possibility of a graceful exit strategy. But the incumbent was showing all signs of digging his heels in.

And the clearest signal came from fat-cat donors who pulled the plug by freezing their commitments to a Democratic Super PAC (Political Action Committee). A nearly isolated Biden was finding support from unexpected quarters — Trump and Co who obviously do not wish to upset their campaign calculations of Biden actually stepping down.

Gaffes continue

Democrats heaved a sigh of relief when Biden went through two events in Washington DC without major embarrassments — a NATO summit and an hour long solo presser that he has not done in a very long time. But the events were still not without flubs, with Biden referring to the Ukraine President as Putin and later calling Kamala Harris as Vice-President Trump.

But Biden is not the first to confuse names and positions. Trump, for instance, has mixed up Pelosi with Nikki Haley. George W Bush “flunked” a quiz in 1999, by not being able to name the Prime Minister of India and calling President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan as “this guy”. For the Democrats, more than Biden’s gaffes they are concerned about his physical stamina and mental acuity.

It is not as if Biden has weathered the storm, for a lot will depend on the Republican Convention in Milwaukee and in the kind of “bounce” Trump will be getting. The polls in the battleground states will be all the more important given that President Biden is seen to be trailing. Biden faces an opponent who is seen strong on the economy and immigration, two crucial issues for Presidential and Congressional races this Fall.

Just before Trump was hit by a bullet, Biden was said to have been in a tense phone conversation with House Democrats. “… unless there’s a major change… there is a high risk that we lose this election. We want to see a change. And that’s what the questions that we’re asking about,” Representative Jason Crow of Colorado said a day after the traumatic event.

The writer is a senior journalist who has reported from Washington DC on North America and United Nations

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