Why Republicans see a chance to flip the rhetorical script and box in Biden and Democrats

He may not like it, but President Joe Biden has a new messaging strategist: Republicans.

After Saturday's shooting at a Donald Trump rally that wounded the former president and Republican nominee, a host of Republicans have accused Democrats and President Biden of engaging in dangerous rhetoric, blaming them for the attempt on Trump's life.

Tired of Democrats calling them autocrats, dismissing their policies as a threat to democracy and being blamed for violent political rhetoric, these Republicans see a chance to flip the script on Biden and his main campaign message.

Trump's newly named vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, immediately blamed Biden Saturday night in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Today is not just some isolated incident," Vance wrote less than two hours after Trump was shot. "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

Law enforcement is still investigating and say the shooter's motive is still unknown.

For months, a central message of Biden's campaign has been that putting Trump back in power threatens American democracy. But some Republicans are hoping that fallout from the shooting muffles the Biden campaign's message.

"He gave a speech about national unity the other night, and yet his only campaign message so far has been histrionics around the threats to democracy, so he faces a fork in the road with two poor choices," said Vivek Ramaswamy, a one-time presidential candidate and former potential VP pick. "One is doubling down on his histrionics, in which case he's not following his own advice. The other alternative is he doesn't have a campaign message."

On CBS News, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller faulted Biden for pivoting back to his campaign message after addressing the shooting.

"Even when you look at Joe Biden, as he was talking about how terrible it was, this assassination attempt, then he immediately started pivoting to things like J-6th, Paul Pelosi," he said. "Let’s put all of that aside, let’s go and focus on what we do to actually help people now."

More: RNC 2024 live updates: Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio set to give speeches

On Monday, Biden in an NBC News interview acknowledged he made a "mistake" by saying in a private call with donors it was time to put a "bullseye" on Trump, but he pushed back on the idea that calling Trump a threat to Democracy led to harm.

"How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?" Biden said. "Look, I've not engaged in that rhetoric. Now, my … opponent has engaged in that rhetoric."

In a Tuesday morning press conference, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said it isn't enough to just call for cooling inflammatory rhetoric.

"In this time, look for leaders that lead with love. Look for people that don't just say, 'tamp down the rhetoric.’ … Support the people that know that even though you don't vote for me, you're not my enemy,” he said.

Trump's role in helping foment the current divisive rhetoric can't be simply wiped away as the GOP tries to set a new tone for the election, said Barbara Perry, co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at University of Virginia’s Miller Center.

"Based in Charlottesville, I am only too aware that the 45th president’s first year in office was marked by a Nazi invasion of this university town and that his last month as president saw a MAGA invasion of the U.S. Capitol to overturn the 2020 election results," Perry said. "Violence begets violence."

Trump has frequently attacked Biden and his administration and has called for retribution against critics throughout the election cycle. He's said that there'd be a "bloodbath" if he lost the 2024 election, pledged to pardon rioters charged with injuring police officers while attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, mocked a hammer attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband and repeatedly called for his critics to be tried.

“It's … not violent rhetoric to warn that Trump is a threat to our democracy and wants to be our dictator,” said David Cay Johnston who has written several books on Trump.

Will Republicans' new messaging tactic work?

Associate Professor of Political Science at Roanoke College Justin Garrison wasn't surprised Republicans are trying to dictate what it is acceptable for Biden to say.

"There’s a political advantage to be had if you can control the (opposing) party’s message,” he said.

For decades, both parties campaigned on the common ground that America is inherently a good place to live, he said. But since 2016, he's seen a shift to the point where every election is a battle for the "soul of America," rather than the best route to making the country better.

More: Donald Trump Jr says his father is a changed man after shooting, expects him to 'moderate'

He's not sure that a middle ground is possible when both parties have drawn such a stark contrast.

"The rhetoric at times is apocalyptic, and there is no super hero movies where the end of the world is moderate,” Garrison said.

A redefining moment for Donald Trump?

Delegates in Milwaukee hope a change in rhetoric from Biden would give Trump an opportunity to redefine himself to voters.

“A lot of the country, people who don't pay attention like we do, they just see him as evil because that's all they hear from the idiot box all day," Al Couillard, 65, of Florida said. "You know President Biden, when he got sworn into the office, he promised the country that he was going to be a unifier. And then he gave the red speech with the red flags behind him, he constantly calls us a threat to democracy and MAGA friends. I've been around a long time, and I haven't seen a Democratic Party so divisive to the rest of the country."

Dehumanizing rhetoric in general has gone too far, Robert Morgan, 30, of Manhattan said.

“I just feel that the demonization of Donald Trump has gotten to levels that contributed to a climate where clearly somebody who was mentally unstable might have thought that this was a good idea," Morgan said.

It also perhaps resets the conversations in their own lives as well.

"I have people in my personal life that used to be very good friends that won't even talk to me because they know where I'm standing politically," Jon Gruber, 60, of Altoona, Iowa, said. "That's just crazy."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: GOP sees Trump shooting as a chance to block Biden campaign message