Democrats and their allies are going silent: After months of warning voters in every battleground state about the dangers of Donald Trump, they’re shutting everything off in the wake of the assassination attempt on the former president.
The plan, according to senior officials at all levels of Democratic campaigning, is for people to see no ads, emails or fundraising texts for the time being. But what happens when the time being is over?
In conversations with around a dozen people who, until Sunday, were part of the nonstop stream of advertisements and organizing efforts focused on defeating Trump, there was a sense that the show must go on. In the first 25 hours after the shooting, however, these Democrats and their allies appeared split over what exactly should happen next and when it should begin. But they remain determined that they can thread the needle of decrying Trump and his potential as president without taking on culpability for the new era of political violence.