President Joe Biden's campaign has spent the past few weeks attacking former President Donald Trump as a threat to American democracy, as well as fighting back against growing calls for him to resign following his disastrous debate performances.
But all of that came to a halt after an assassination attempt at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Following the assassination attempt on the former president, which left both the shooter and a bystander dead, the Biden campaign has pulled television ads and halted all “outside communications,” a campaign official said.
ABC News also obtained a campaign memo sent to staff just minutes after the shooting, asking them to “refrain from making any comments on social media or in public.”
“We know there are many questions, and we are asking all staff to refrain from making any comments on social media or in public while we gather answers to those questions,” campaign co-chair Jennifer O'Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote. “Furthermore, we ask everyone to suspend active campaign communications across all platforms and circumstances until more information is known.”
The “pause” couldn't come at a more inopportune time in the campaign: The Republican National Convention is set to begin on Monday, with a full week of events planned to bolster the GOP nominee, including the long-awaited announcement of Trump's running mate.
The Biden campaign's decision not to air any ads prevented it from sending out a needed counter-message during the convention.
The campaign has begun to step up its attacks on Trump in an effort to present a more forceful, unscripted Biden. They have launched a series of attacks aimed at the former president, specifically targeting Project 2025.
“Folks, Project 2025 is the biggest attack on our system of government and individual liberties ever proposed in the history of this nation,” Biden warned Friday at a rally in Detroit, Mich. “This is a blueprint for a second term of the Trump Administration that every American should read and understand.”
Biden, who was on a long weekend in Rehoboth, Delaware, returned to the White House early Sunday to be briefed on the situation. Biden's team postponed a planned trip to Austin, Texas, for the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, which had been scheduled for Monday at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library.
Harris was also forced to change course: A Biden-Harris campaign official said the vice president had been scheduled to visit Trump's home county of Palm Beach, Florida, to discuss abortion rights, but that trip has also been postponed.
In his speech Sunday, Biden called for the country to come together and stop using divisive rhetoric.
“There is no room for this kind of violence, or any kind of violence, in America,” Biden said. “I have directed the director of the Secret Service to review all of our security arrangements for the Republican National Convention, which begins tomorrow.”
He also promised to hold an independent review of national security at Saturday's rally.
Despite those actions, the campaign is now dealing with accusations from Republicans that Democrats are to blame for Saturday's shooting, after Biden said “we have to put Trump at the center of the target.”
“Enough talk about debates. It's time to really criticize Trump. He's spent the last 10 days doing nothing but riding around in a golf cart and bragging about scores he didn't get,” Biden said Monday in a private call with donors.
ABC News' Mary Alice Parks contributed to this report.
