When I heard the news that an attempt had been made on Donald Trump's life my immediate reaction was ‘not again'.
I wrote only yesterday about Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 when running for President. I recall that happening, just as I recall Reagan being shot since then. Bullets solve nothing when it comes to Presidential races.
My next obvious concern was for all involved. I hope those injured recovered. I feel for the family of the young man who acted so heinously, and has lost his life for doing so. They will be totally bewildered by this, I suspect.
And then, whilst wishing no ill to Trump, I thought of the violence that Trump encourages in his campaigning. He has often spoken in rallies of the ‘right way' to deal with those who dissent from his comments. He is unambiguous about his desire to settle scores with those who he thinks have crossed him if he reaches office. He may not be threatening their actual lives, but he is threatening to destroy their wellbeing when they have done no wrong, except to disagree with him.
So, I unambiguously condemn the shooting.
I am relieved that Trump has not been made into a martyr.
I worry about what he might make of this in the campaigning to come.
And I unambiguously condemn the violence he endorses.
This was a bad night for the USA, and maybe for the world. Assassins have no role to play in life, let alone politics. We can and should worry that some think otherwise. The price of that is very high.
But so too is the price we pay for having candidates who endorse violence and the ending of the rule of law.
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I am frequently amazed at American friends who often have professional qualifications yet question climate change, say there are lots of Marxists who want to undermine the republic and deny Trump’s extremism-among other things.
My more sensible contacts point to a polarising media ( and politicians )which are one sided, use hyperbole and stereotype on a massive scale. If people only ‘hear’ one consistent message , part of which is that the other side routinely lie , then it us not that surprising. Their conviction is very emotional and reason makes little impact.
We have been going that way for years and one thing that Labour could do would be set up a more effective regulation of the mass media, especially some of the newspapers.
“one thing that Labour could do would be set up a more effective regulation of the mass media, especially some of the newspapers.”
Yes, yes, yes, and are there ways to make editors and journalists free from the whims of owners? And owners to live in the UK and care about the welfare of all its people – not just the wealthy?
I am really surprised this assassination did not happened much earlier.
One must live in the USA to really understand how much Trump and his cronies have divided the country with every tool at their disposal.
Trump has been calling for acts of violence against the “public” since the first “Black Lives Matter” protest and maybe even before then.
A man in the audience died. There was an ER doctor at the rally who went to his aid and performed CPR but he was too badly injured. He had been killed by a shot to the head.
The perpetrator was a young man – 20 years old – who was reportedly a registered Republican voter wearing a Demolition Ranch T-shirt (it’s a You Tube channel dedicated to guns, apparently).
I dread to think what state the US might be in now if that had been Trump. Civil War? There certainly would be chaos.
“Bob Roberts”
The film. Pertinent to the events & I am confident, as per the film, events will play out as they usually do.
Real life imitating Hollywood.
Now the Republicans are blaming violent rhetoric from the Democrats for this shooting. No mention, of course, of Trump’s rhetoric.
That was far too close. Media reports are saying an inch to the rght and Trump would have been dead. It looks like less than an inch would have made the difference. Where on earth were the security services? The criminal was seen and reported, apparently minutes before the shooting started.
Other media reports are suggesting that Trump may only have been hit by flying glass, maybe from a shattered teleprompter. As usual, it’s dangerous to draw any conclusions before the full facts are known.
American shoot-to-kill policies have deprived us of any opportunity to find out the full truth of the would-be assassin’s motives, sadly.
Are you really suggesting that it makes the slightest difference if Trump was ‘only’ hit by glass from a shattered teleprompt as opposed to a bullet? Really? Trump was nearly murdered. That was too close and the security services have a lot of explaining to do. Or are you geuinely suggesting that this was a setup?
Just for clarity, if Trump succumbed to a sudden medical emergency I would be sorry that a life was lost, but otherwise unconcerned. But to murder a politician for doing their job?
I have made it very clear that I condemn this violence and all the pain that results from it
I apologise if I let a conspiracy theory through
I thought I had deleted all of them
Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy (RFK Jr) has asked Biden for Secret Service protection but has been turned down three times.
Kennedy is on the ballot in several states, and is trying to poll enough signatures to be added to all 50. https://www.kennedy24.com/ballot-access
Kennedy has documentary evidence of several threats against him.
Since yesterday, there have been calls to get protection for RFK Jr.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/major-democrat-demands-secret-service-protection-rfk-jr-suspected-trump-assassination-attempt
As this may be “the moment Trump won the election”, and the iconic image circulates that echoes other patriotic images, there are legitimate questions to be asked. Why did both event and POTUS45 security ignore the people telling them there was a man on the roof? Why was the roof empty? If the man had an AR type rifle why single shots (AR rifles can fire 80 rounds or more a minute)?
Not really surprised TBH in the USA. I dread the next few months, as Trump is deified and Biden demonstrates his own decline.
“If people only ‘hear’ one consistent message”
Many people only WANT to hear ONE message.
Political violence is bad. Supporting a candidate who advocates political violence is bad. Carrying out political violence against that candidate is bad. These are 3 messages.
Some are going to feel that 1 of these things are more bad than others. And will seek to justify it and, yes, will only want to hear 1 message.
Some will create their own message to spin the narrative of political violence in their favour. This is also bad.
There is no winner. We are all losers.
This was an utterly disastrous event on any number of levels.
We forget that, actually, much of politics is violent.
The Gazan war is essentially a political dispute.
Much political action involves oppression of one group of people by another, whether through indirect economic coercion or directly through physical bullying and/or military control.
The Chicago Boys were involved in Chile as part of a ‘political’ campaign at a time when 30,000 people were ‘disappeared.
Even at a relatively low level of aggression, the jailing of climate protestors for several years may easily be regarded as a deliberately contrived intimidatory political reaction in support of corporate fossil fuel interests. In western industrial nations such as the UK and Australia previously valued civil rights have had to be suppressed to even enable court proceedings to take place.
There were 43,000 deaths from gun violence in the US in 2023.
There was almost one school shooting a day, and over 600 mass shootings in total.
US politics has become even more polarised, much down to Trump’s populism, and Jan 6th was an armed goon squad insurrection, in Trump’s own support, just confirming that deeply ingrained gun culture.
There have been persistent undercurrents of violence built on the threats of using firearms and especially from the US libertarian right.
A further tragedy is that the level of political debate in the USA is now so low that a shooting like this then creates an automatic sympathy vote for the almost victim – a man who has previously endorsed that gun culture, and recently issued scarcely veiled threats of future political violence.
Thus such dystopian realities emerge from these brutal Kafkaesque perversions of the political process.
The incident allowed Trump to create the perfect impromptu image which will dominate the rest of his campaign. The raised fist and the defiant expression combined with the memory of him saying: “Fight, fight, fight!” will – sad to say – boost his chances of winning in November. It’s sure to replace the “mugshot” image as the favourite for MAGA posters and t-shirts.
What if ‘Trump supporters’ conclude their Govt (Secret Service etc) doesn’t provide adequate security for Trump and therefore form a MAGA militia or some ‘security force’ to defend Trump. Private military forces are employed by the US Govt so why can’t Trumpers do the same?
And/or that other dark forces are behind the Trump assassination attempt; little evidence seems to be required.
Dangerous times in an unstable presidential election.
And so the world lurches further towards the catastrophe of another Trump presidency, as this bodged attempt to assassinate the lying fascist will probably boost support for him when he is already ahead in the pills.
No doubt he’ll portray himself as the victim and be seen as much by the morons who support him. But as BayTampaBay points out the atmosphere of violence arising from the polarisation of US society is down to Trump and his supporters’ deranged populism.
As is always the way with such people they portray themselves as the victims when they are in fact the perpetrators. There are numerous examples of violence committed by Trump’s supporters and no doubt there will be more, especially if God help us he is elected. The January 6th insurrection, the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, threats against election officials, plots to kidnap Democratic party opponents and more. As Richard has pointed out, Trump is a fascist. So are many of his supporters. And those Republicans who support him even though they initially opposed him because they are so lacking in any moral integrity are enablers of fascism. Rather like all those German civil servants, army officers, businessmen and ordinary German citizens who voted for and went along with Hitler in 1933 and afterwards.
The far right have always had a predilection for violence; They are opposed to gun control indeed as President the first act Trump signed was to allow mentally ill people to aquire guns, Trump has fueled conspiracies, sought to deny the election result, called the VP a traitor, tried to excuse his supporters for storming the Capitol, he has made jokes about the house speaker’s husband who was brutally attacked and hospitalised.
At one rally when he was heckled Trump offered to pay the legal bills of anybody who attacked and beat the hecklers.
So the far right have always travelled hand in hand with violence all across the world and historically too!
Now they try to claim it’s “liberals” who “raised the temperature”.
Although Interviews with school friends of the shooter confirm he was a republican with a hard right streak in him.
Recently we too have also had the murder of MP Joe Cox by a far right extremist, and we now have Farage in parliament with his fascist rich supporters behind him.
Who knows what this next year will bring We live in dangerous times
Correct