Kristen, what are you learning about Trump's state of mind? Well, I've talked to a number of people who have either spoken to the former president in the aftermath of that second assassination attempt or been briefed on conversations with him who say that he is in good spirits, that he was making jokes at one point saying that it ruined a wonderful game of golf, and noting that he was two under par at the time that it happened. He apparently told one person that he was going to win in November, that he had upped his resolve for that, and at one point, he was asking what the media coverage had been of the second assassination attempt.
All of this to say that it does seem as though his reaction to this has been very different than what we saw in Butler, Pennsylvania, right after that event. We saw him call for unity, say that the country needed to come together, and he was the one who could do it. Now we see a much different approach.
What we have seen in his statements that he has given, including an interview, is essentially blaming the Biden administration. The rhetoric from the ministration saying that that is the reason that he got shot. And I think we have some of the excerpt here from his interview that he did with Fox News Digital, where he says he, the shooter, believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris and he acted on it.
Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country, both from inside and out. Again, sources say, though, that he is in good spirits and that the campaign is not going to change any of its previous plans. He had several events this week in Washington, DC, as well as Michigan and Uniondale, New York.
They say everything on his schedule is going to stay exactly the same. Laura Berger, I'll start with you. Give us your analysis.
First of all, of Trump blaming Harris and Biden for this apparent attempt at his life, even as they condemn political violence. Well, I don't think it's really surprising, Wolf. We don't even know the motivations of this would be shooter.
We know very little about him now. and, the first time, this happened to Donald Trump when he was actually shot, he sang a different tune. He was calling for civility.
He said, you know, I'm going to be nice now. And at this point, he, is no longer doing that. He's decided to point a finger at, Kamala Harris, even though he is a candidate who has called the other side vermin and who constantly says if they're elected, you're not going to have a country anymore.
There's a little bit of this going on on both sides. There's sort of that each side sees the other side as an existential threat to America. But I think it's a little rich for Trump to say, you know, this is Kamala Harris's doing when we know very, very little about this man and what his motives were.
Yeah. Good point. S.
E. Cupp, how dangerous are these Trump comments during this already rather tense moment for the country? Very.
And look, I agree with the ecumenical sentiment that rhetoric and words matter and that we should tone down the divisive rhetoric. However, as Gloria is pointing out, you can't have it both ways. You can't say that threats, bomb threats on, Springfield, Ohio, schools and hospitals have nothing to do with Trump and the Trump campaign.
You can't say Trump has no responsibility for an attack on Paul Pelosi. No responsibility for Jan sixth, no responsibility for threats against election workers, no responsibility for threats against Doctor Fauci and health administrators. I mean, the list goes on and on and on.
So, the calls to tone down, are good, but they need to come from inside the house. Republican strategist Matt Mowers is with us as well. Matt, should Trump be trying to bring the temperature down and unify the country right now, as he vowed to do after the Butler assassination attempt in Pennsylvania in July?
Well, look, I think he certainly has an opportunity to I mean, Donald Trump for a long time has been the leader of an ideological wing of the United States. in moments like this, he actually has an opportunity to potentially become a leader of the entire United States to bring people together. clearly, he is voicing, I imagine, what he truly feels.
Maybe he's speaking for some members of his base and how they feel, but it is an opportunity, I think, for him to reach out to people, you know, you know, after the assassination attempt in Butler, you did have the, President Biden and Vice President Harris, others saying we do have to change some of our rhetoric. President Trump obviously said similar things. You're not really hearing quite as much of that going on right now.
But I will say one other last piece of this is that since the assassination attempt in Butler, you have seen Donald Trump's numbers on a personal, rating level, favorable, unfavorable rating go up because in moments like this, you do see Americans unify, rally around political leaders of either party when there's situations like this, as it should unify Americans. It's interesting. Mr Cross is with us, Democratic strategist.
It's interesting that the Harris campaign is trying to downplay the political significance of this apparent attempt on Trump's life, and says there are no plans to address it politically. Is that the right approach? Do you think, how should the Harris campaign navigate this very, very sensitive moment?
They should do it in the exact way that they are. We've heard from the Harris campaign, about the importance of not having this level of violence. We've heard from them, from them saying that there needs to be more support for the Secret Service, that we need to amplify and ratchet up the the number of Secret Service people available.
That is something that, you know, financially at least, is going to have to happen through Congress, through Congress. But I think that she's doing the right thing, to a point that she made a moment ago. You're talking about a man in Donald Trump who has ratcheting violent rhetoric and actions against the media, against Doctor Fouche, against black people, not only Haitians, but against black people writ large.
we saw that with the with his reaction to BLM. We're seeing it with his ostentatious conversation around Haitian migrants, which is factually incorrect. We've seen time and time again, this may be okay with violence and insinuating it and talking about it even on truth social and in other sources.
So in many cases, we have to call out a thing if a thing that it happens to be, but also argue the point that violence has no place in our politics or in our or in our arena. Also, recognizing that this isn't new, unfortunately, we've seen cycles of political violence, over decades in this country. And honestly, generations if we talk about it in a very real sense.
Kamala Harris is running the campaign in the same way Donald Trump is. This is a man who, unfortunately, has had to go through two assassination attempts in a very short amount of time. He's fundraise off of both.
He's utilized rhetoric off of both to ratchet up his MAGA base. He knows that the polls are closing in, and he's utilizing this to his advantage as well. You know, Gloria, the polls show that the race right now has been a dead heat for weeks.
Do you see this apparent attempt on Trump's life changing that at all? Well, look, I think, I think this will make the base rally around him more. I think that, his notion that this is, Kamala Harris his fault will appeal to that base of voters.
But I don't see this changing the shape of the race in any significant way. at this point, I think, you know, the fact that they're talking about Springfield and, you know, eating cats and dogs and all the rest of it is shows you that they want to talk about immigration more than anything else, no matter what they have to do to do that. And I think they're going to continue on that front.
And and so, you know, this is a candidate who, remarkably, does not seem to be reaching out to that sliver of undecided and independent voters that could be within his grasp. But instead, he continues to be full of bombast. You know, charging that this is this shooter is is, this would be shooter is Kamala Harris's fault, which is which is absurd on its face.
And it's interesting. See, is I mean, you just said the Trump campaign is seizing on this apparent assassination attempt as a way to rile up his base. but how do you see it?
how do you see independents and swing voters who are so critical in these battleground states right now reacting to this? Yeah. Listen, I'm I'm here in Pennsylvania, a swing state with the most electoral votes.
It's a big prize. And for this battleground show, I do, I talk to swing state voters all day, and they all say the same thing. The distractions of the migrants eating pets story or what childless cat ladies, all this nonsense.
The Taylor Swift stuff. They are so not here for it. They have real problems and they're undecided because they don't, frankly, like either of these candidates or trust either of these candidates.
They're waiting for the one who is going to tell them. I understand your problem with the economy or inflation or the cost of goods or immigration. I understand it, and here's how I'm going to solve it.
This stuff that Trump is doing, is really turning them off deeply, turning them off. we're not this isn't conjecture. They are telling us in their own words that this stuff is repelling them.
But it feels a little like the Trump campaign has lost the plot of this election. He's got the base. They're going nowhere.
They love everything he does. He needs these independent, moderate, undecided voters in seven swing states to win this election. And he doesn't seem to care.
