(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/15/2024) Within five minutes of President Joe Biden's remarks in Detroit last Friday, the audience began chanting "lock him up," referring to former President Donald Trump. Lon Johnson, a past Michigan Democratic Party chair, said such activity shouldn't be engaged in.  

"First off, I want to say it's horrible when I hear 'lock her up' at Trump rallies, and I think we should not be engaging in the same activity. It was horrible when they did it, and I think it's horrible when we do it," Johnson said on this week’s episode of the MIRS Monday podcast.  

Biden's reelection campaign hosted a more than 2,000-person rally in the gymnasium of Detroit's Renaissance High School. "We (Heart) Joe" and "Michigan For Biden-Harris" posters filled the space, as Biden called Trump "a loser," and said it would be "over my dead body" that he would allow Trump to run a dictatorship-like presidency. 

Biden's event came amid doubts and criticism of his cognitive capacity to run an efficient campaign against Trump. The evening in Detroit solidified Biden's intentions to continue his candidacy, despite concerns about his 81-year-old age, as well as those concerning the June 27 debate performance that political pundits called disastrous. 

But after Saturday, when Trump became the target of a reported assassination attempt during a Pennsylvania rally involving six to eight rounds of noted gunfire, the political conversation nationally is now zoomed in on the state of political violence.  

On the MIRS Monday podcast, Johnson – who led the state's Democratic Party from 2013 to July 2015 – discussed both what direction political rhetoric will go in following the shooting at Trump and why he called on Biden to end his reelection pursuits earlier this month.  

"It's horrible that this is the impetus for this, but I think we're going to see more calls for unity and for calmness and for a civil discourse of ideas. I think we've witnessed that across both sides here over the last 48 hours, and I think that's going to continue," Johnson said. "We're debating very serious issues about the future of our country, and in this instance, it clearly spilled over to violence, and that's what we need to address."  

Johnson said whether it's discussing the Jan. 6, 2021 riots in the U.S. Capitol or the recent shooting at Trump, "our words have consequences."  

"The words of our leaders, the words of our political candidates, the words of our activities … have meaning and have power, and we need to be very cautious when that gets to a physical manifestation of that," he said.  

As to why Johnson joined some Democrats in publicly calling on Biden to withdraw his candidacy, he described watching the June 27 debate as shocking.  

He said a "very civil debate" is visibly going on among Democrats. He said he thinks the question whether another Democratic presidential candidate will be more successful is "still being settled."  

For example, a one-man demonstrator outside of Biden's Detroit rally was 69-year-old Tom Moran of Fenton, who held a big white sign reading "Pass The Torch Joe."  

He said he's voted Democratic in every presidential race for the last five decades, but he can't vote for Biden. He said he believes that if Biden leads the Democratic ticket, Trump will have a landslide victory, dragging down other Democratic candidates like U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) – the perceived front-runner in the U.S. Senate primary – "to defeat."  

Moran first became discouraged when Biden did not speak about not seeking reelection following the 2022 elections. Thirty-six states held gubernatorial elections that year, and Democratic victories climbed from 16 to 18 since 2018 and Republican wins fell from 20 to 18.  

When Moran voted for Biden in 2020, and advocated for him in places like Ohio, Tennessee and Utah with promotional banners that he designed, he did so expecting him to be a one-term transitional president.  

"We have to recognize our limitations. I'm 69 – life isn't as easy as when I was 65 four years ago, but he's wanted this so long that it's hard for him to give up. But it's not about him," Moran said. "If he wants to be another Ruth Bader Ginsburg, stay on the ticket. Drag the Democrats down in flames and see how you are remembered in history books. It won't be pretty."  

A national poll conducted from July 9-10 by PBS News, National Public Radio and the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, found that among 1,174 registered voters in the country – with a +/- 3.3 percent margin of error – 50 percent preferred Biden and 48 percent backed Trump.  

If it was Vice President Kamala Harris versus Trump, Harris received 50 percent support and Trump received 49 percent. If it was Trump versus California Gov. Gavin Newsom, 50 percent would support Newsom and 48 percent favored Trump, and 49 percent preferred Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Forty-nine percent supported Trump if it was a match-up between those two.  

The Democratic National Convention will take place in Chicago from Aug. 19-22. Moran believes a contested convention with multiple Democrats vying for the presidential nomination would be "amazing." Instead of a convention where balloons drop for the anticipated front-runner, Moran would like to see a convention where Harris, Whitmer and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro are attempting to make the "strongest case against Donald Trump."  

Johnson said if a new Democratic nominee were to surface at a convention, hypothetically, "it would be one of the largest news items ever recorded in the last probably 20 years."  

"That individual would gain in the name ID and, I believe, in the campaign resources needed to conduct a campaign," Johnson said. "The infrastructure would be there."  

As for polling reactions to the shooting at Trump, a national poll of 11,328 registered voters from July 12-14, with a +/- 1 percent margin of error, found that 44 percent of all voters would support Trump in a general election and 42 percent would back Biden. Trump's support comes from 6 percent of surveyed Democrats, 89 percent of Republican respondents and 37 percent of surveyed independents.  

Johnson said he believes the polls will be more guided by what Trump and his team do during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.  

"Are they going to use this moment to further divide or anger, or are they going to use this moment to create unity and a civil debate? I think that will be to me what I will be watching for this week at the convention," Johnson said.