On Saturday, the frenzied nation was plunged into fresh chaos.
The cause is believed to be an assassination attempt on former President Trump.
The scene from the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally was instantly reverberated around the world, and it will be played out over and over again in the days, weeks and years to come.
The footage flows in a confusing stream: first, gunshots are heard, and Trump is pinned to the ground by security guards. Then, the former president stands up, fists clenched and blood flowing from around his right ear. Trump, apparently walking unaided but with security guards still tightly surrounding him, walks to a waiting vehicle and is taken away by ferry.
A difference of just an inch or two could have saved Trump from a far worse tragedy.
He wrote in a social media post that he was “shot above the right ear” and “immediately felt the bullet cut through my skin.”
Trump escaped the darkest fate, but one rally attendee was killed, whose name has yet to be released, and the suspected shooter, named by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was also killed. Two others were reportedly wounded.
The attack on Trump was swiftly condemned by politicians of all ideological hues.
Biden appeared at a short, hastily convened event in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he was scheduled to spend the weekend.
“We have no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said. “This is terrible, and this is one of the reasons we have to unite our country.”
Biden also said he had tried to contact Trump but learned his predecessor was there with his own doctors. A White House official said the president then spoke with Trump. Biden returned to Washington shortly after.
Condemnation also came from other Democratic leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and former President Barack Obama.
Republicans were similarly skeptical, with former President Bush, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) all speaking out in condemnation of the assassination attempt on President Trump.
Prime Minister Johnson called it a “horrific act of political violence” and said it “must be strongly and unanimously condemned.”
But while there was near-unanimity in condemning the act itself, signs of fraying quickly emerged around it.
Some Republicans have blasted Democrats for unfairly demonizing the former president, a move they say creates a breeding ground for violence.
Meanwhile, left-of-center Americans believe with just as much conviction that Trump himself is the main actor in injecting dangerous toxicity into the bloodstream of American public life.
At this time, much remains unknown about the incident, including the shooter’s exact motive.
Clearly, the Secret Service also has serious issues to address: The bravery of the agents who surrounded Trump doesn’t erase the larger question of how an would-be assassin came so close to killing a former president in broad daylight and in public.
This shocking event will naturally have political repercussions.
As of now, the Republican National Convention is scheduled to begin as scheduled on Monday in Milwaukee.
But the convention, which was expected to be full of glamour but little in the way of substantive news (other than Trump’s selection of his vice presidential nominee and his own acceptance speech on Thursday), will inevitably look different now.
Attendees will likely heroize Trump and celebrate not just his political resilience but his literal survival.
The criticism such an incident would provoke from the media and political opponents would surely be tame and probably awkward.
Simple election arithmetic would certainly predict some increase in support even for a polarizing figure like Trump, and this would strengthen the loyalty of even his “soft” supporters.
In a dark and strange irony, Biden may end up being the political beneficiary of Saturday’s shocking events.
The president has come under fire from many in his own party for his disastrous performance in the June 27 debate in Atlanta, putting his chances of retaining the Democratic nomination in grave danger.
But now, it seems certain that the national conversation will be dominated by calls for civility, unity and displays of pure patriotism.
Realistically, in this atmosphere, Biden’s internal opponents will find it hard to dislodge him.
It is very doubtful that the attempt to kill Trump will actually bring about a more civil atmosphere in American politics. The perverse incentives for supporting the outrageous and seditious have not disappeared in the turmoil at Butler.
The situation will remain more uncertain in the future.
For now, it may be enough that the country has avoided a much worse, more intense trauma by a narrow margin.
This note is a reporting column by Niall Stanage.
This story has been updated as new details become available.
