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By James Bickerton
News Reporter
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Saturday's shooting of Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, which left the former president injured in an apparent assassination attempt, "has the power to swing the [2024 presidential] election firmly to the Republicans," according to a leading political scientist.
The claim was made to Newsweek by Mark Shanahan, an expert in American politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K., who argued Republicans will contrast Trump's fist raising defiance with ongoing concerns over the fitness of 81-year-old President Joe Biden.
Trump was addressing supporters near Butler, in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, when a number of shots rang out, one of which struck the presumptive Republican nominee on his ear leaving him bleeding.
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Broadcast footage captured the moment Trump grabbed his right ear, before ducking down, as shots were heard. As he was led away from the stage by Secret Service agents Trump defiantly raised his clenched fist, sparking cheering from supporters.
One rally attendee was killed and two others seriously wounded according to a spokesperson for the Secret Service. The suspected attacker, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot and killed by law enforcement.
Speaking to Newsweek Shanahan said: "It is terrible that any candidate should face an assassination attempt. Thankfully Donald Trump was not badly injured. However callous, his strategists will be looking at the incident for the opportunity it brings. Trump now has his hero image: bloodied, but unbowed. Contrast that with the recent imagery of a declining Joe Biden. The Trump team definitely will.
"This will boost Trump in the polls and get the Republican vote out in Pennsylvania in November. That has the power to swing the election firmly to the Republicans."
When contacted by Newsweek Thomas Gift, a political scientist who heads the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, added: "Trump pumping his fist in defiance will go down not only as the most iconic image of this campaign, but as one of the most indelible in modern American political history.
"Yellow police tape encircling the crime scene, with American flags draped in the background, in a regretful sense symbolizes the perilous threat environment that now defines the political mood of the country."
Newsweek contacted representatives of the 2024 Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns for comment by email on Sunday outside of usual office hours.
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Reacting to the shooting on his Truth Social website Trump commented: "I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.
"I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin." Trump was taken to the hospital for medical treatment, but has since been released.
The apparent assassination bid was strongly condemned by Biden in a post on X, formerly Twitter. He said: "I have been briefed on the shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania.
"I'm grateful to hear that he's safe and doing well. I'm praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information.
"Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety. There's no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it."
Concern over the age and mental competence of Biden surged following his first presidential debate with Trump on June 27, during which at several points the Democrat incumbent appeared to lose his train of thought. In response, several prominent Democrats, including members of Congress and actor George Clooney, urged him to step aside from the race so another candidate could be selected.
According to the latest study of recent polling by election analysis website FiveThirtyEight, as of July 13, Trump led Biden with 42.3 percent of the vote against 40.3 percent in the presidential matchup, with independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in third place on 9.1 percent.
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