Gun culture in the US has cast a dark shadow on the crucial presidential elections barely two months away. Former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump faced an attempt on his life for the second time 15 September during the run-up to the election. In the first attempt earlier, a bullet had just missed him but torn off a part of his ear. This time it seems the assailant fled after a security personnel located him and fired at him.
The incident has been condemned by one and all. More so, when the contest is getting close as the new Democrat candidate Kamala Harris has changed the election campaign game quite a bit.
The second attempt on Trump’s life came after a scintillating debate between the two presidential candidates. Rarely does a presidential candidate in the US or anywhere else have to go through the motions of a nationally televised debate with two different rivals of the same party twice during the run-up to the same election. This could be a blessing in disguise or a curse. For Trump, the debate with his new Democratic Party rival Kamala Harris recently has proved to be a disaster even though he had hugely outperformed his rival Joe Biden in the first debate. This has infused new life into the contest which appeared to be one-sided when it was billed to be between Trump and Biden.
The whole country had been eagerly waiting to see how the Vice President would fare after Biden’s shocking failure to match the arguments of Trump earlier. Harris took Trump by surprise from the very beginning by forcing him into a handshake he had not anticipated. She then went on skillfully playing on Trump’s ego. She drew him into the pitfalls in which he has invariably become entangled referring to the quality of his campaign rallies and his fascination with dictators.
Harris seemed to have the upper hand in the debate. Trump cut a sorry figure by going back to his oft repeated charge that the whole show of the second debate had been rigged. The charge itself was an admission that he had not exactly shone in the face of the performance given by the Democratic presidential candidate. Having said that, it also seemed strange that the issue of attempt on Trump’s life did not come up once during the debate and that while Trump was ‘fact-checked’ more than once by the hosts, Harris’s various claims went left unchallenged.
Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race on 21 July, after a disastrous debate with Trump, has in less than eight weeks changed a somewhat weak Vice President of mediocre popularity into a candidate happily backed by the Democratic camp and capable of rallying big crowds.
However, Harris still does not seem to be at the peak of her game. It could be that the haste and the highly unusual conditions of her nomination did not allow Harris to draw up a carefully considered political plan, traditionally polished during primaries that would give her candidacy its full weight. That she was not prepared for such an eventuality seems evident from the fact that she has been shying away from directly meeting the Press, granting only one interview since the President stepped down from the race.
Her responses to the issues voters are most concerned about – the economy and immigration – appear to be inadequate. The Western governments expect a clear-cut policy from her on the question of immigration. Harris has not tackled another challenge with required deftness – that is the linkage of her candidacy to the administration she has been part of for more than three and a half years. The performance of the Biden presidency from which she is inseparable is being harshly judged by American voters.
After a successful start to the campaign, a unifying nomination convention and a successful first debate, Harris has an uphill task in maintaining the momentum behind her. Her successful debate with Trump two months before the battle of ballot is no guarantee of success in November.
Until now, the Democrat candidate has played her cards well enough to inspire new hope in her camp after the withdrawal of Biden, who was heading for an inevitable defeat due to his age and physical limitations.
However, Harris has to convince the undecided voters in a country nearly vertically split into two camps that she is the person best equipped to respond to their concerns. She has not yet been able to show the voters what a Harris presidency might look like. The second attempt on Trump’s life and failure of the Biden administration and Democrats, including Harris, to address it directly may spoil the chances for her and steer sympathy toward Donald Trump.