TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — When people think about the political climate in the United States nowadays, some people may tend to think of it as polarizing.
“History is kind of repeating itself in different ways,” Foothills resident Kameron Norwood said.
However, Pete Seat, a University of Arizona professor who was the deputy assistant press secretary for former president George W. Bush said he is already seeing a shift in the tone of the parties’ rhetoric.
“We’re already seeing a toning down of the rhetoric, calls for the temperature to be decreased,” Seat said.
He said instead the campaigns are focusing on calling for unity. He feels as if both sides probably have a different definition of what unity means, but should relay that to their voters. He said they probably view unity as people voting for each of their parties.
To get voters, Seat said the Trump campaign could pull back on attacks on Biden and instead focus on rallying around Trump.
Meanwhile, he said Democrats are already pulling back on the rhetoric that Biden should not run.
However, he feels as if the election is going to be decided by voters who don’t like Trump or Biden, but he said the assassination attempt isn’t going to impact their choices.
“It could have an impact on folks who lean towards Trump but were hesitant to go to the polls,” he said, saying it could motivate them.
Voters like Norwood said the assassination attempt is not changing their vote.
“For me it comes down to the economy, immigration, abortion, actual issues whether my candidate has an attempted assassination or not,” Norwood said.
Laurie Newton lives in the Foothills and said she has had her vote solidified for a while and is not going to let the assassination attempt on Trump influence her.
“You can’t let violence affect the way that you vote. I mean, it has to come down to the issues,” Newton said.
Seat said the assassination attempt could impact the way senators and congress people campaign on an individual basis, but he doesn’t see it being party-wide. He said some of the more obvious topics like inflation, immigration and foreign policy are going to dominate their campaigns for the most part.
Seat said President Biden handled relaying information on the assassination attempt well.
“He has condemned what occurred and he has outlined actionable steps,” he said.
Meanwhile, he feels like Trump has shown strength and was willing to show that to the world when he raised his fist in the air.
“He also understood this is a moment in history,” he said.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
