AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
And we're joined now by NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Good morning, Mar.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So, we're going to be getting updates on this incident, which is just - is so unnerving to the American people. Beyond the security repercussions, how does something like this affect an election, like how voters feel and the tenor of the campaign?
LIASSON: We're going to be hearing from voters obviously over the next week, but the storyline of the campaign has dramatically changed, at least for now. Before it was about whether Biden would be dropping out or staying in, now it's all about Trump as a victim and a martyr. He'd already been running as a victim and a martyr. He was the grievance candidate, the retribution candidate, but now he is literally a victim. And you heard Danielle describe this - Trump and his supporters have used violent rhetoric for years, whether it's hang Mike Pence or punch that protester in the face or Ron DeSantis will slit some throats. And it wasn't just people at the rally who are blaming the press. It was Republicans, including J.D. Vance, a potential vice presidential candidate with Trump, who was blaming Joe Biden for this attack. So how does it affect the race? I think for the moment, the early consensus is it helps Trump, gets him a lot of sympathy.
RASCOE: So, President Biden is going to be briefed on the shooting again this morning, but soon after the incident yesterday, he made some remarks. Here's a bit of what he said.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Look, there's no place in America for this kind of violence. It's sick. It's sick.
LIASSON: You know, the president went on to say is that the bottom line is that the Trump rally should have been able to have been conducted peacefully. He said, the idea that there's political violence in America like this is unheard of. Actually, that's not true. Political violence has a long history, whether it's the assassinations of JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King, or the wounding of Ronald Reagan and George Wallace and Gabby Giffords and Steve Scalise. Political violence has a long history in America. But for now, at least, the president has said that he's going to be briefed on this, and the Biden campaign is taking down their political ads at least for now.
RASCOE: So the Republican National Convention starts tomorrow. What are you going to be looking for? And what's going to be the big message at this point?
LIASSON: Well, I think that the Republican Party was already extremely confident coming into Milwaukee. They're an insurgent party that believes they are on the cusp of victory, mostly because of Biden's stumble in that debate. So the message was going to be that Trump is strong and Biden is weak. I think that message is going to be even more dramatic this week. That's what Trump is selling. I'm your retribution. I am a strong leader who can fix things. This is a message that has worked in the past. Throughout history and all around the world, Bill Clinton used to say wrong and strong beats weak and right every time. And right now, Trump looks very strong.
He just survived an assassination attempt, and Biden looks weak because of his performance in the debate. I think you're going to see those images over and over again, Trump with his fist raised and his face bloody, and Biden with his mouth open at the debate. I think that this event is really going to be the iconic event that is going to define the Republican Convention in Milwaukee.
RASCOE: Do you have any sense of the VP pick? Before this happened, everyone was waiting to see what Trump would do about who he's going to have as his VP.
LIASSON: Yeah, I don't know if this affects his decision to choose a vice president. I think this makes him more confident of victory, and generally when candidates are very confident, they feel freer to choose the candidate they really want. They're not interested in other criteria, like what can this vice presidential candidate do for me? Can he bring a state or a certain constituency? And the interesting thing for Trump in terms of picking a vice president is I can't think of a presidential candidate whose vice presidential pick means less than it does for Donald Trump because he is such a dominant figure and an overwhelming figure. So I think he probably - this probably gives him a freer hand.
RASCOE: NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Thank you.
LIASSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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