If Sarah Longwell's point is "one good rally from time to time is insufficient for the very moment we face," she is right.
This is bad. Come at me all you want. This is not good! This isn’t the way to beat Trump. One good rally from time to time is insufficient to the very dangerous moment we face. https://t.co/TBAlfQPe8J
— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) July 15, 2024
But first to NBC News' Lester Holt, conducting an interview without apparent shame or regret, states
well, let's talk about the conversation that this has started and what we say out loud and the consequences. You called your opponent an existential threat. On a call a week ago, you said it was time to put Trump in the bullseye. There's some question about the context but you appreciate that words matter.
On a call- presumably private- with donors on July 9, Biden stated "I have one job, and that's to beat Donald Trump. I'm absolutely certain I'm the best person to be able to do that. So, we're done talking about the debate, it's time to put Trump in a bullseye."
There was no question about the context. The President was obviously referring to defeating Donald Trump in November and used a term ("bullseye") understood by virtually everyone over the age of, say, 60. The remark also was made in private, though as former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling could attest to, the private often becomes public and is treated as if it had always been public, or worse.
And most obviously, to view today's GOP and to suggest that anything President Biden has said is in the same incendiary ballpark as numerous remarks by Republicans is dishonest and reprehensible. Following the attempted assassination of ex-President Trump, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene accused the Democratic Party of trying to "murder President Trump" and contended "the Democrats are the party of pedophiles, murdering the innocent unborn, violence, and bloody, meaningless, endless wars." In an expression of what Republicans consider "unity," two days later, on Monday, Greene spoke at the Republican National Convention.
Which only figures. Donald Trump refers to violent insurrectionists from January 6, 2021 as hostages- even as real, live Americans are being held hostage in Gaza- and suggests he will pardon them if he is elected. He has called- publicly for televised military tribunal of Liz Cheney and for imprisonment of elected officials and has declared "I am your retribution." He has pledged to be a "dictator" the first day of his presidency, with imagination the only limit as to what executive orders he might sign that day and what orders he may give the military to enact revenge upon his enemies. And Republican officials throughout the land have pledged allegiance to Mr. Trump and echo his words.
Did words "matter," as Lester Holt put it to President Biden, when Paul Pelosi was brutally attacked in his own home, Donald Trump Jr. reposting an image with a pair of underwear and a hammer and “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready," and the ex-President two days later calling the USA "rigged, crooked, and evil?" Did words matter when the plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer was announced and at a Trump rally the crowd chanted "lock her up" and Trump responded "lock them all up?" Did words matter when there were threats of violence against state election officials by Trump loyalists?
Yet, Donald Trump as of last Friday appeared to be headed for victory this fall and, following his triumphant fist-waving after being injured on Saturday- aided by endless replaying of the photo-op by the media- is now an extremely heavy favorite to be elected. Ironically, Trump's masterful performance after being shot points the way to a move available to the incumbent President which would energize voters and give him a very good chance of defeating his opponent.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" shouted Donald Trump as the Secret Service agents allowed the ex-President to raise his arm and fist triumphantly. "Fight! Fight! Fight!" chanted attendees at the first night of the Republican convention in a signal that it's not only Lester Holt who understands that words matter.
The crowd's hearty endorsement of a violent belligerence reflects the powerful message of strength, even invulnerability struck by the ex-President two nights earlier. Holt would prefer Joe Biden and his Party avoid this sort of response, or anything even remotely similar, in favor of comity and unity.
But two can play the game Donald Trump has begun and continued, and Joe Biden could be the second. Longwell is correct that Biden's response to his dire political situation is insufficient. However, Biden can take a page from Trump's playbook and simultaneously reinforce his instinct to call for unity, patriotism, and sacrifice.
The President, though facing long odds, is determined to run for re-election. He must be equally determined to win the election and the way forward is both unspoken and obvious.
Biden needs to schedule a rally- an outdoor rally- immediately. It would take place after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention but otherwise as soon as possible. It would give him a chance to project strength- not his strong point- and patriotism, which is his strong point. It could be his version of the George W Bush post 9/11 theme of a return to normalcy as a refutation of terrorist attacks and terrorists themselves.
"If we don't exercise our freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, domestic terrorists have won," the President could declare. (The FBI is reportedly investigating Saturday's attack as a case of "domestic terrorism," however that's defined.) A rally would have a particularly significant impact upon a race in which one candidate, the President, is considered by many voters to be too old while the other is (wrongly) characterized as a tower of strength and resistance.
And it would be extremely safe. There has been an assassination attempt upon one presidential candidate, one leading to the swift killing of the apparent perpetrator, There will not be another. Security will be extraordinary at any rally, let alone an outdoor one. The message has been sent: appear with a firearm at any gathering attended by a presidential candidate in any capacity, and you will be shot dead instantly.
Extraordinary, also, is that there is no report of any Democrat or liberal/progressive pundit or journalist even suggesting the possibility that the President promptly demonstrate to voters that he is vital, virile, and up to any challenge. It's enough to question how seriously Donald Trump's opponents and critics take the "existential threat" posed by the former President.
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