Assassination attempt weakens our democracy
By now, unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past 48 to 72 hours, the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump is front and center in American politics.
And just about everyone has something to say about the high-profile incident that took place July 14, leaving at least one person dead and two other people fighting for their lives in a hospital.
“A former president was shot,” President Joe Biden said in a speech he addressed to the nation about the shooting. “An American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing.”
photo credit: Gage Skidmore Donald Trump via photopin (license)
“We cannot-we must not go down this road in America. We’ve traveled it before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer, whether it’s with members of Congress in both parties being targeted in the shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on January 6th, or a brutal attack on the spouse of former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, or information and intimidation on election officials, or the kidnapping plot against a sitting governor, or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump,” Biden added.
America has been down this road before as President Biden mentioned. That path is marked with nothing positive for the American people. And if we, as a country, do not learn from our mistakes of the past, history is bound to repeat itself. That’s the wrong direction that America needs to go in.
“I want to begin by saying that I am grateful that former President Trump is safe following yesterday’s horrific assassination attempt,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “On behalf of the entire Justice Department, I want to extend my deepest condolences to the loved ones of the spectator who was killed. Our hearts are with them, and with those critically injured and their families.”
photo credit: Gage Skidmore Joe Biden via photopin (license)
“And I am deeply grateful to the agents and law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line during yesterday’s attack. I spent the morning in briefings with Justice Department personnel as well as our partners across the federal government. And earlier today, I briefed President Biden in the Situation Room on our investigation of yesterday’s shooting,” Garland went on to say.
The assassination attempt on Trump was carried out by a single perpetrator who acted alone, according to the FBI. The law enforcement agency went on to state the name of the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
Trump was in Pennsylvania for a campaign rally when the incident took place. Crooks, who used a legally purchased firearm to use in the shooting, was killed at the scene. The FB still has not identified a motive for the shooting.
“What we witnessed yesterday was nothing short of an attack on democracy and our democratic process,” FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said at a press briefing. “An attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate can only be described as absolutely despicable and will not be tolerated in this country. I want to start by offering my deepest condolences to all the victims of yesterday’s shooting and their families.”
The shooting underscores the electric and heavily divisive political atmosphere the country now finds itself in. It’s been that way since Trump came into the national spotlight and beat Hilary Clinton to become president №45.
photo credit: Gage Skidmore Donald Trump via photopin (license)
The political tug-o-war cranked up the political sphere a couple of more notches when Biden beat Trump in the 2020 presidential election. The Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection in and around the U.S. Capitol raised the political stakes more.
With the 2024 presidential election looming in November, the trail to the Oval Office figures to be a testy one for the American people. But this is nothing new. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed in a Los Angeles hotel while campaigning as a presidential candidate in 1968.
Kennedy’s murder took place months after the assassination of civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and five years after his brother, John F. Kennedy was gunned down. President Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981. If history serves as a barometer, America has been shaken to its core following these incidents as well as others.
Right now, America needs to look itself in the mirror and decide if it wants to relive painful chapters of its history or move into a more united future.
“Our hearts go out to the family of the individual who was killed, the two others who were critically wounded, and, of course, former President Trump and his family. I want to make sure they know — and the American people know — that the men and women of the FBI are working tirelessly to get to the bottom of what happened,” Wray added.