On Friday, the chatter around the 2024 election centered on President Joe Biden and his fitness for the job.

Democratic camps were split on whether a gaffe-prone Biden should stay in the race, or step out, with deep-pocketed donors jumping ship.

Saturday evening pushed all that to the back burner, when a sniper attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally. The photo of a defiant Trump, blood on his face and fist in the air, will be a defining image of the campaign.

Biden, to his credit, gave a short, succinct, flub-free update on the event, calling such violence “sick,” and saying that he planned to speak with “Donald” that evening.

For a moment, the partisan rancor paused.

It will doubtless heat up again in due course, this is a polarized country. And Democrats may again hit the gas on supporting or calling for the removal of Biden.

They might want to check in on how voters feel about it.

A NPR/PBS News/Marist College national poll released Friday found 50% of registered voters support Biden’s 2024 candidacy, while 48% back Trump in a head-to-head matchup. Just 2% remain undecided.

That’s a bit of a bump for Biden, who gained on last month’s survey, which placed him and Trump tied at 49% among registered voters.

The poll was taken after his debate flub-fest on June 27.

That may not take the wind out of George Clooney’s sails, whose Hollywood resume somehow makes him a political sage on the national stage. It certainly won’t take the wind out of Biden’s, who has vowed to stay in the race.

Those on Team Step Aside often tout Vice President Kamala Harris as the heir apparent. Understandable, as Harris ticks the boxes on progressive issues that thrill the far left.

However, as Forbes reported, a Five Thirty Eight analysis of polls found Harris’ odds of winning the Electoral College over Trump are slightly better than Biden’s (38% versus 35%), but when various economic and political factors are incorporated, in addition to polls, Five Thirty Eight found Biden’s odds of winning swing states and the Electoral College against Trump are better than Harris’ — 48% to 31%.

Harris outperforms Biden, and three other potential candidates commonly floated to replace him, in a hypothetical matchup against Trump — but she would still lose to the former president by two points, according to a CNN/SSRS poll (margin of error 3.5) conducted June 28-30 that also found Biden would lose to Trump by six points.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted with Noble Predictive Insights, found 30% of Democrats would pick an unnamed someone else for president, but more (58%) would stick with Biden even after the debate with Trump. Another 12% of likely Democratic voters were unsure.

Given specific alternative choices, likely Democrat voters split among several high-profile Democrats: Biden (34%), Harris (15%), former First Lady Michelle Obama (15%), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (7%), U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (7%), former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (5%), Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (5%), Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (3%), U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (2%) or Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (1%). Another 6% would chose someone else.

God willing, there won’t be any more incidents like that of July 13. But the political maelstrom is far from over.

Editorial cartoon by Bob Gorrell (Creators Syndicate)