Dodging a Bullet
Well, that was bad.
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, there was an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump this afternoon in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was grazed in the ear by one bullet, but seems to be fairly uninjured at this stage – thank God. Unfortunately, there were far more serious consequences for the bystanders who were shot; one has died and several others are suffering from significant injuries. The shooter, whose name has not been officially released at this juncture, was killed by law enforcement on site. He apparently shot at the Republican nominee for president from a nearby rooftop with a rifle, with rallygoers and civilians purportedly warning police about the shooter in advance.
We will inevitably know more about this truly historic and horrific episode in the coming days, but I felt that the gravity of the moment called for some preliminary thoughts based on the information currently available.
We should all unite as Americans to pray for the families of the deceased and those who were hurt in this tragic event. We should be incredibly thankful that we did not witness the murder of a former president and current leading political candidate. Such an event would irrevocably shake the foundations of our society. This goes beyond politics to pure national fellow-feeling.
Acts of political violence, regardless of the target, are unacceptable and must be condemned. This murderous assault on a political candidate and his supporters at a public rally is an attack on our democratic process itself and strikes at the heart of our polity. A mere gust of wind likely saved the former president’s life and our nation from a far darker outcome.
There has been a lot of catastrophizing about the upcoming election, with breathless talk of budding authoritarianism, the imminent end of democracy, and the rise of a new Hitler (literally). That needs to stop. Now. The temperature of political rhetoric in this nation has reached a boiling point after steadily rising for the past decade and a half. If we do not cool this down, there will be more violence and civic strife, the likes of which we have not seen in this country since 1968.
This was truly a historic moment, not only for the attempted assassination – the first such attempt on the life of a sitting or former president since the shooting of Ronald Reagan in 1981 – but for the target’s reaction to it. After coming within inches of death, Trump stood, told his Secret Service escort to “wait” and then raised his fist to signal his defiance. Like him or not, this was a genuinely admirable – and fairly badass – response from a man who was just shot. It reminded me of the time when former President Teddy Roosevelt was shot in the chest while campaigning for the presidency as a third-party candidate in 1912; he shrugged off the bullet lodged in his jacket and continued on with his address. I honestly think that, had the Secret Service not rushed him off the stage, Trump may have had the same instinct.
The photographs of the shooting’s aftermath are immediately iconic. They are undeniably historic in nature and will adorn the pages of textbooks for ages to come. It is rare to see an image and instantly recognize its historic importance, but this is one of those cases. The bravery of the photographers themselves should not be minimized, either. They took incredible photos while bullets were flying, doing their jobs under the most immense stress possible.
The Secret Service performance here was a decidedly mixed bag. Their responses to the first shots were executed perfectly; they protected the target, rapidly killed the assailant, and secured the scene. The speed at which the assassin was eliminated was impressive, allowing only a few shots to be fired before he was silenced. But this should never have happened in the first place. The Secret Service will take a bullet for their charge, but their mission is not to have to. That was a failure in this case. The rally site was relatively rural, with few high points in the vicinity. That a shooter was able to gain this high ground within rifle range of the former president, unnoticed by the Secret Service, is unacceptable. That civilians in the area were frantically signaling to law enforcement about the shooter minutes in advance of the attack, with no meaningful response, is unforgivable. There must be an investigation into this performance as soon as possible. And for God’s sake, give more protection to major political candidates!
Lastly, and I am loath to even bring this up because it is so patently obvious to anyone with a single functioning brain cell, this was not staged. I have seen folks online and off say that this was done by the candidate himself to smear his political rival and their supporters; that is imbecilic in the extreme. No person would ever stage an assassination attempt that was intended to see him shot in the head. To the people who actually think this conspiracy theory is reality: go outside. Read a book. Drink some lemonade. Do literally anything other than expostulate about politics. The world thanks you.
I will probably have more to say about this in the days and weeks to come, so stay tuned. Until then, you can find me on Twitter, where I’m sure that I will be posting on the subject. God bless the United States of America.