Donald Trump has told a rally in Michigan that he “took a bullet for democracy” when an attempt was made on his life last week.
Attended by thousands, it was Trump’s first rally with new running mate JD Vance - and first since he survived the assassination attempt.
He told a packed arena in Grand Rapids that Democrats have accused him of being “a threat to democracy” and, to huge applause, said he was ready to “take back the White House”.
Many of those at the event, in the battleground state of Michigan, told the BBC that the assassination attempt - which killed an audience member and wounded two others - would not stop them from showing support for the Republican presidential nominee.
Some said they came precisely because of the shooting.
This act that the Republicans are putting on right now, to make themselves seem more moderate than they really are, to appeal to centrists, is so unbelievably transparent. It’s obviously bullshit, but what’s terrifying is that it might actually work. Democrats appear unsettled, Republicans are unified. Trump’s assassination attempt makes him seem sympathetic to many. The only thing left for the Republicans to do is convince voters that they’ve totally changed and that things are going to be different this time, and that it’s not going to be like before, they promise. Unfortunately, like an abused spouse, many American voters might give Trump and Republicans that second chance. God help us all.
All they have to do is convince everyone they will be opposite of their recent actions. Yeah sounds easy.
No, that’s not true. They don’t have to convince everyone, they only have to convince enough people. They know very well that many millions of Americans would never vote for them no matter what, but they also know that many millions of Americans will vote for them and millions more might, if properly persuaded.
The voting population has a collective memory of only a few months.
Where I live, we had some of the strictest and stupidest pandemic lockdowns in the western world. People protested the lockdowns, blamed the wrong level of government for implementing them, and then re-elected the party that DID implement the lockdowns with a very low voter turnout.
The restrictions had been lifted maybe months before the election, so the lockdowns were a distant memory for the fraction of the population that showed up to vote.
But what you are talking about here is quite a lot different. People who have an opinion on trump aren’t going to forget it. But if you really want to cling to that’s doom don’t let me stop you, I just take issue with pointlessly spreading it
They don’t need to change many people’s minds on Trump. They just need to get the ones that like Trump to go out and vote, and the ones that don’t like Trump to stay home or not vote for Biden.