that’s one of the reasons why the dropout was a good idea. it came so soon after the shooting and made such waves that it completely drowned the shooting.
it helps that a. he didn’t really get hurt and b. he’s super unpopular, so the reaction from people who weren’t already in the maga cult ranged from “don’t give a shit” to “you had one job”.
i think he’s super demoralized so he doesn’t even feel like campaigning. the press conference was probably people around him telling him that Harris has been dominating the media and getting ahead in the polls so he had to show his orange mug before people completely forgot about him (ah, we should be so lucky).
mind that one of the factors in 2016 was that he was so outrageous that he got billions of dollars worth of free advertising. now people are talking about Harris, walz and couches.