An attempted assassination of presidential candidate Donald Trump plunged the country into a political abyss. Never again the country swore after President Ronald Reagan was wounded 43 years ago. And yet, here we are again--the collision of violence and politics that saps the soul of a nation.
In my nearly eight decades, I have witnessed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. In a single year--1968--the United States suffered through the killing of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King and the murder of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, leaving the nation stunned.
Former President Trump was holding an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania when a gunmen armed with a rifle squeezed off eight shots, wounding the candidate in the right ear, missing his face by millimeters. When this blog was written late Sunday, questions are swirling around the assassination attempt.
How was a gunmen able to secure a perch on a building roof within 150-yards and a clear line of sight to the former president? Did the Secret Service do a proper site survey of that building prior to the rally? Were Secret Service snipers surveying the building during the event?
In the aftermath of high profile shootings involving politicians, the FBI has always immediately assumed responsibility for the crime and held on the spot briefings, answering reporters questions. Why has it taken so long for the FBI to provide transparency? Why the delay? What are they hiding?
Why didn't Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is in charge of the Secret Service, honor a Trump campaign request for more protection? Why did Mayorkas refuse to provide a Secret Service detail to candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose family has been targeted twice by assassins?
Were political considerations factors in the decisions by Mayorkas? And why is the Secret Service already admitting it has no plans to beef up security for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday? Biden's security detail also should be bolstered.
Too many unanswered questions remain, which is fueling conspiracy theories, anger and distrust. President Biden's statements in the aftermath have been admirable. But the agencies in charge of protection and the investigation need to stand for a public briefing accompanied by media questions.
There is no excuse not to do so, even if all the facts are unknown.
President Biden called for lowering the temperature of political discourse. He is right. However, in the two years leading up to the shooting, the media and Democrats have compared Trump to Adolph Hitler, who murdered more than six millions Jews. Incendiary rhetoric always proceeds assassination attempts.
Biden also has mocked Trump as a "dictator" and has over and over reminded supporters that the former president is an "existential threat to democracy." He regularly calls Trump a convicted felon and five days before the shooting said "it was time to put Trump in the bullseye."
Many Democrats have used similar language without weighing the impact of their pejorative words.
Attorney General Merritt Garland is quick to condemn "hate speech" of administration critics and opponents. But he has been strangely silent in the wake of continuing comparisons of Trump to Hitler. Garland also has tacitly sanctioned the harassing lawsuits against the former president.
In an effort to cover their tracks, the media is accusing the former president of tapping into Hitler "vibes" as The New Republic magazine claimed. An unrepentant media can be expected to ramp up the anti-Trump vitriol with the kickoff of the GOP convention.
Want to understand the deep vein of Trump hatred in the country?
Your journalist tracked social media posts on Facebook and X, formerly Twitter after the assassination attempt. Here is just a representative sample of the scalding temperature of the political climate.
"Trump can't run his mouth off and expect not to pay for it."
"This (shooting) was obviously a set up by Trump. The guy loves attention."
"Next time the shooter needs to spend more time at the range."
"This is classic Trump. He's losing the election so he arranges to get nicked with a bullet."
A staffer of Democrat Rep. Bennie Thompson, a rabid Trump critic, huffed the shooter needed "lessons so you don't miss next time." Thompson fired the staffer.
Colorado Democrat Rep. Steven Woodrow was despondent because "the last thing America needed was sympathy for the devil, but here we are."
This represents the state of American politics. Politicians, the mainstream media, social platforms, candidates and the two political parties own the inferno. They need to preach civility as well as practice it. Healing a nation always takes longer than plunging it into the abyss.
Abraham Lincoln, before he was brutally assassinated, shared advice for times such as these. "I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."
Amen, Mr. Lincoln.
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