Until July 13, only Donald Trump’s legal troubles had disrupted the election campaign. The former president, once again in the race to be the 47th president of the United States, divided his time between the courts and campaign rallies, before entering history as the first former president to be convicted of criminal charges.
But history will most certainly remember another event. On July 13, in the middle of a rally in Pennsylvania, while Donald Trump was delivering his speech, with his iconic red cap on his head, detonations rang out. Donald Trump, targeted by gunfire, fell to the ground, before being exfiltrated by secret service agents. He still took the time to get up, a few seconds later, his fist raised in front of the audience, with blood on his face. Hit in the ear, he was nevertheless safe and sound. His aura was now that of a miracle survivor. And the fervor of his supporters was increased tenfold.
A miracle candidate
A week after the assassination attempt of which he was the victim, the Republican candidate for the White House resumed, this Saturday, July 20, the thread of his presidential campaign by holding, in Michigan, his first rally since the previous weekend. In the meantime, the billionaire was officially invested by his party to run in the presidential election in November, during a triumphant convention in Wisconsin, where he wore a large white gauze on the ear. In support, thousands of supporters also wore a white bandage on their right ear.
Donald Trump promised “a monumental landslide” in favor of Republicans in the next election and mocked Democrats “who don’t know who their candidate is,” referring to the Democratic camp’s multiple calls for Joe Biden to withdraw from his candidacy.
At the same time, Joe Biden, caught up with Covid-19, is forced to isolate in his private residence in Delaware. His campaign must be put on hold for a few days. In addition, since his last debate, widely considered a failure against Donald Trump on June 27, the outgoing president has been weakened by a growing rebellion within his own Democratic camp, which doubts his mental acuity. Faced with the incisive Republican, Joe Biden appeared fragile, his voice hoarse, struggling to articulate his thoughts. More than 30 Democratic elected officials had been asking him for several weeks to make way for a younger candidate. Major donors had also announced that they would stop donating to the party as long as Joe Biden was a candidate. Even the newspaper The New York Times had called, in an editorial, for his renunciation in “the interest of the country”.
In public, the president is resisting. He says it over and over again to the press: he is still in the race and will beat Donald Trump. But in private, support is becoming increasingly scarce. At the same time, Democrats are busy finding a replacement who can hold up.
A candidate who gives up
After weeks of speculation about his physical and mental abilities, the President of the United States finally announced, this Sunday, July 21, in a letter to Americans that he was withdrawing from the race for a second term in the White House. Joe Biden is throwing in the towel one month before the Democratic convention, scheduled between August 19 and 22, which should have inaugurated him as candidate, and four months before the presidential election scheduled for November. “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country that I step aside and focus solely on carrying out my duties as president until the end of my term,” he said in a statement.
Kamala Harris, the current vice-president, declared herself ready to “win the Democratic nomination” in order to “beat Donald Trump”. Joe Biden gave her his support. Aged 59, she displays a youthful image compared to Donald Trump, 78, who emerged strengthened from the Republican Party’s nomination convention, in marching order behind the ticket he is carrying with JD Vance.
Kamala Harris has already received strong endorsements from former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, a former Secretary of State. Other prominent figures in the Democratic Party have announced their support for her, including former Secretary of State John Kerry, left-wing figure Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who was seen as a possible rival.
The vice president has also already raised $49.6 million in campaign donations after Joe Biden endorsed her to take over, according to her campaign spokesperson, Lauren Hitt. But the Democrats are far from done. Former President Barack Obama, one of the most influential Democratic figures, has simply expressed his “confidence” in his party to establish “a process that will allow an exceptional candidate to emerge,” without mentioning Kamala Harris. As the Democratic candidate’s nomination convention approaches, the race for the White House is even more disrupted than it already was, after a week that will go down in history in American politics.