United States Environmental Protection AgencyA hail 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 torn apart the 2024 presidential campaign, damaging the nation’s social and cultural fabric. The illusion of security and safety in American politics – built over decades – has been catastrophically shattered.
Trump was only slightly injured but was also seriously injured — a photo taken by Doug Mills for the New York Times appears to show a bullet whizzing through the air near the former president’s head.
Not since Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinkley Jr. in 1981 has there been such a serious act of violence against a president — or presidential candidate.
It recalls a dark period in American history, more than half a century ago, when two Kennedy brothers – one a president and one a presidential candidate – were assassinated by an assassin’s bullet. Civil rights leaders such as Medgar Evars, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcom X all lost their lives in political violence.
Like today, the 1960s were marked by severe political polarization and turmoil, when a gun and an individual willing to use it could change the course of history.
It’s hard to predict what impact Saturday’s events will have on America — and its political discourse. There have been some bipartisan calls for a softening of tone and national unity.
Just hours after the incident, President Joe Biden – Trump’s potential opponent in November – appeared before cameras in Delaware to make a statement to the press.
“There is no place for this kind of violence in America. It is sick,” he said. “We cannot be like this. We cannot tolerate this.”
The president later spoke by phone with the former president, who cut short his weekend at the beach and will return to the White House late Saturday night.
But the violence quickly spilled over into the relentless partisan trench warfare that has characterized American politics in recent decades. Some Republicans blamed the attack on Democrats, who used lurid language about the threat they said the former president posed 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. JD Vance, who is believed to be on Trump’s short list to be his vice presidential running mate, tweeted. “That rhetoric leads 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 at the ballot box in November for the “disgusting statements” that, in his view, led to Saturday’s attack.
Democrats may object, but many on the left used similar language to describe the culpability of right-wing rhetoric in the months leading up to the near-fatal 2011 shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
beautiful picturesThe violence in Pennsylvania will certainly cast a shadow over the Republican convention, which begins on Monday. Security protocols will be tightened, and protests — and counter-protests — near the venue could bring a new sense of anxiety.
Meanwhile, the nation’s attention will be on the party’s nominee when he takes the stage on Thursday night.
The image of the former president, bloodied and with his fist raised, is sure to be a rallying point in Milwaukee. Republicans have been planning to make strength and masculinity a central theme, and Saturday’s incident will give that a new energy.
“This is the fighter jet America needs!” Eric Trump wrote on social media, along with a photo of his father after the shooting.
The Secret Service will also face scrutiny for its handling of security at the Trump rally, where an individual with a high-powered rifle was able to get close to a key presidential candidate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has promised that his chamber will conduct a full investigation. Those investigations will take time.
But for now, one thing is clear: in a tumultuous election year, American politics has taken a dangerous new turn.
