Marc A. Thiessen: Now is Trump’s chance to unite the country. Here’s what he should say.

To all but his most hardened detractors, the image of Donald Trump – fist raised in defiance as blood from a failed assassination trickled down his cheek – was both heart-wrenching and inspiring. The attempt on Trump’s life has made him something he likely never expected to be in this election cycle: a sympathetic figure.

This has dramatically reset the presidential race – giving Trump a historic opportunity to unite the country and expand his base of support, while at the same time disarming Joe Biden of his only effective argument against the former president.

Just a few days before the attempted assassination, Biden warned that Trump is “even more dangerous now” than he was before. “He says if he loses, there will be a bloodbath,” Biden declared falsely. “Trump said if he wins, he’ll be a dictator on day one. He means it, folks.” Now Biden can no longer talk about dictatorships and bloodbaths, because, as he put it in his Oval Office address Sunday, “the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down. And we all have a responsibility to do that.” Presumably that includes him.

This is a devastating development for Biden’s re-election strategy. He can’t run on his record because he faces double-digit disapproval on nearly every issue and 7 in 10 Americans say he doesn’t have the “mental and cognitive health” to serve. His only case for a second term is to convince Americans that Trump poses an existential threat to our way of life. How does he do that now without violating his own pledge to “lower the temperature?” How does he attack Trump as a dictator-in-waiting without being accused of engaging in reckless, irresponsible, dangerous rhetoric that puts his opponent’s life at risk?

In other words, the assassin’s bullet grazed Trump but has effectively silenced Biden. With his opponent rhetorically disarmed, Trump can now seize the moment and use his speech at the Republican National Convention to argue that there is no greater threat to our democracy than what happened Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania – and present himself as the defender of American democracy against the forces of violence and chaos.

Trump has said that after Saturday’s assassination attempt, he threw away the “extremely tough speech” he had prepared and will now use his address to “unite our country.” Good for him. If he wants to do so effectively, he should do what Biden failed to do in his Oval Office address and give just a nod to the ways he has contributed to our disunity. This would go a long way toward opening hearts to his message. The best way to win converts is to admit you are a sinner, too.

He should point out – with sadness rather than anger – that when Biden was asked during the debate whether the tens of millions of Americans who vote for Trump will be voting against American democracy, he said they would be. Those Americans, Trump can point out, include a 50-year-old firefighter named Corey Comperatore, who came to the Saturday rally with his family and died protecting them from the hail of gunfire. He wasn’t a threat to democracy. He was its living embodiment, a patriotic citizen who was exercising his God-given freedom to support the candidate of his choice. The demonization of our fellow Americans who disagree with us has to end, Trump should say.

He should pledge that he will do what Biden promised but failed to do, and put his “whole soul” into “bringing America together.” He should pledge that, as president, he will fight for all Americans whether they vote for him or not. And then he should take that message on the campaign trail, leaving the attacks on Biden’s record to his surrogates and focusing instead on how he will unite and lift up the nation. By showing grace in the face of unspeakable violence, he can convince now sympathetic but still skeptical voters that he can be the kind of president they want to see in the Oval Office.

Trump has an opportunity no president has had since George W. Bush rallied the country after the 9/11 attacks to unite behind his leadership. Trump’s devoted MAGA followers were already behind him (and now will walk barefoot over broken glass to vote for him). But perhaps for the first time, millions of non-MAGA voters disappointed by Biden might be prepared to give Trump another look.

If Trump seizes that opportunity on Thursday, he has the potential to pull off not just a narrow electoral college win, but a landslide victory.

Follow Marc A. Thiessen @marcthiessen on X (formerly Twitter).