Biden and his campaign grapple with a delicate national moment

Washington CNN —

President Joe Biden and his campaign are facing an abrupt pivot point: After spending the last two weeks trying to salvage the president’s reelection bid, they are now grappling with a delicate national moment following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

The Biden campaign and Democrats across the party scrambled Sunday to determine how to adjust their plans to counter messaging at the Republican National Convention, which had been in the works for some time.

“The big issue is how to campaign against him or attack him,” a senior Democratic adviser told CNN. “Can we even do that this week?”

The adviser said discussions were underway to calibrate jabs and criticism aimed at Trump to focus on policy differences, rather than personal attacks. Plans that had been underway for weeks to respond to the GOP convention are being reviewed and potentially adjusted.

In the hours following the attempted assassination, which killed one spectator and injured two others, both Biden and Trump called for unity. In a rare Oval Office address Sunday night, Biden called on the country to “lower the temperature in our politics.”

“While we disagree,” Biden said, “we are not enemies. We’re neighbors.”

Hours before the shooting at the Trump rally, Biden had been trying to assuage concerns among members of his own party by participating in calls with key groups of lawmakers – some of whom were still unconvinced about his viability as a candidate. But the campaign’s focus took a sudden turn as news of the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, took hold.

Stunned Biden campaign officials huddled and decided to pause all outbound communications and pull down TV ads. The campaign urged staff in a