U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyThe spray of bullets may have only grazed Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday night, but they killed one rally attendee and seriously injured two others.
They have also undermined the 2024 presidential campaign and undermined the country’s social and cultural fabric. The sense of safety and security built over decades in American politics has been shattered.
Trump suffered only minor injuries, but it was close enough — a photo taken by The New York Times’ Doug Mills appeared to show the mark of a bullet slicing the air near the former president’s head.
Not since Ronald Reagan was shot dead by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981 has there been such dramatic violence against a president or presidential candidate.
It was reminiscent of a dark period in American history more than half a century ago, when two Kennedy brothers – one a president and the other a presidential candidate – were felled by assassin’s bullets. Civil rights leaders such as Medgar Evars, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X were also killed in political violence.
Like today, the 1960s were marred by deep political polarization and dysfunction, when a gun and an individual willing to use it could change the course of history.
It’s difficult to predict what impact Saturday’s events will have on the United States and its political discourse. There have been calls from both parties for calm rhetoric and national unity.
Within hours of the incident, President Joe Biden, Trump’s likely opponent in November, appeared on camera in Delaware to make a statement to the media.
“America does not allow this kind of violence. It is sick,” he said. “We can’t do this. We can’t tolerate this kind of behavior.
The president later spoke by phone with the former president. He cut his weekend at the beach short and returned to the White House on Saturday night.
But the violence also quickly seeped into the stark partisanship that has characterized American politics in recent decades. Some Republican politicians blamed the attack on Democrats, who made dire statements about the former president’s threat to American democracy.
“The core premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance posted on social media. Shortlist of candidates for Vice President. “Such rhetoric led directly to the assassination attempt on President Trump.”
Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita said “left-wing activists, Democratic donors and even Joe Biden” need to be held accountable for the “abhorrent rhetoric” at the ballot box in November , which he believes led to Saturday’s attack.
Democrats may object, but many on the left used similar language to describe culpability in right-wing rhetoric in the months leading up to the 2011 shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
Getty ImagesThe violence in Pennsylvania will undoubtedly cast a pall over the Republican National Convention, which begins on Monday. Security protocols will be heightened, and protests and counter-protests near the site may be accompanied by a new sense of foreboding.
Meanwhile, the national spotlight will shine brighter when the party’s nominee takes the stage Thursday night.
The photo of the former president, covered in blood and with his fist raised, is sure to become a rallying point in Milwaukee. Republicans have already planned to make strength and rugged masculinity a central theme, and Saturday’s events will breathe new life into that theme.
“This is the fighter jet America needs!” Eric Trump wrote on social media, along with a photo of his father after the shooting.
The U.S. Secret Service will also face intense scrutiny over its handling of security at Trump rallies. A man with a high-powered rifle could get within shooting distance of a major presidential candidate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson promised a full House investigation. These investigations take time.
But for now, one thing is clear: In a year of electoral uncertainty, American politics has taken a new and deadly turn.
