Biden and Trump changing campaign tones following assassination attempt –will it stick?

Following the failed assassination attempt on former President Trump, both presidential candidates vowed to focus their campaigns on a message of ‘unity’ leaving some to wonder just how long this will last and what these candidates will now focus on.

UCF Political Science Professor Aubrey Jewett said in the 40 years he’s been heavily following politics he hasn’t seen this sort of ‘unity’ model stick, and he doesn’t expect this new campaign model to last until November.

“I do think that both candidates and campaigns, at least in the short run, will change their tune. In the aftermath of this terrible, ugly assassination attempt, the big question will be will that last beyond the next few weeks?” Jewett said. “I would guess that we’ll just see a temporary lull, you know, here in the first week or two after the assassination attempt, and now there’ll be a lowering of the volume and the types of attacks that campaigns are doing, but then after that, it’ll probably get back to pretty much where we were before.”

Jewett said if we get to September and it isn’t back to the verbal warfare we’ve seen between candidates, he would be shocked.

With President Biden and Former President Trump leaving the name-calling and character insults out of their speeches, another question voters are left wondering is what will each candidate focus on now.

The hope is their policies.

“I think for President Biden, he needs to talk about the economy. He needs to try to sell the American public on the idea that the economy has improved a great deal in the last couple of years. Factually, it has, but a lot of people don’t feel it, mainly because inflation went up so high for a couple of years. Here’s my plans over the next four years to really supercharge this economy and get everybody moving. Abortion rights, you know, that’s another issue that I think favors President Biden, at least according to public opinion polls, and probably access to health insurance is another issue that probably favors Biden,” Jewett said.

“I think Trump would be wise to try to focus on a more positive message, talk about what he would do, talk about immigration, talk about the economy. And if he does that, and says, Hey, you know, I want to be the president for all Americans, instead of constantly attacking certain groups and making them feel like okay, literally, we are threatened if he gets back into office, you know, not only I think, would that make the American public feel a little better, but it might be a great campaign strategy for him,” Jewett said.

Jewett said one thing that both candidates know though is that verbal sparring sends the public to the polls.

“There are a lot of voters that don’t pay that much attention to the specifics of policy, and so they’re actually often voting on the personal characteristics of the candidates, and sort of an emotional vibe, rather than this logical calculated which policy, you know, kind of a thing,” Jewett said.

Jewett is also on the side of analysts who believe this assassination attempt will help Trump in his fight for the White House.

“Yeah, I mean, I would put myself in the camp of political scientists and observers, analysts, that do think that this will help Trump at least in the short run, because there is a tendency for the American public to rally around someone who they feel has been attacked, right, and an assassination attempt is the worst kind of political violence that can occur in our democratic system,” Jewett said.