The attempted assassination of former President Trump on Saturday during a campaign rally was a shocking moment for America, though thankfully he wasn’t seriously injured.
Since the nation’s founding, both U.S. presidents and presidential candidates have been killed or injured in acts of political violence, but it has been more than 40 years since such an attack, when Ronald Reagan was shot outside a Washington hotel in 1981. Hours after Saturday’s shooting, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country.”
Sadly, it is all too easy to believe something like this would happen. Mass shootings and acts of political violence have become horrifyingly frequent in the United States. No place is safe from bullets — not schools, churches, grocery stores nor Fourth of July parades — and no individual is. Members of Congress have been shot in a parking lot and at a ball field. And not even one the most protected people in the world, a former president with a Secret Service detail, is immune.
Candidates for office from school boards to Congress are regularly threatened with harm and death. Two years ago, the husband of Democrat Nancy Pelosi was seriously injured when a deranged person broke into their San Francisco home looking for the then-House Speaker. And on Jan. 6, 2021, armed assailants, some chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” stormed the Capitol building intent on overturning the results of the presidential election
This should be a moment for unity — as both President Biden and Trump called for — to condemn violence and mourn the victims with one voice. Trump was grazed by a bullet and three other people at the rally were hit. One attendee died and two others were badly hurt and in stable condition Sunday.
Instead the incident threatens to divide this deeply polarized nation further and spur more violence. In a nation with more guns than people, that should concern every American.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The example set by political leaders in the next few days is crucial to how the rest of the campaign season plays out. This is neither a moment for victim-blaming nor demonization.
Biden and other Democratic leaders have rushed to condemn the violence, as is appropriate. And the president has wisely called for an independent review of security measures at the rally, with the findings reported to the public. But some on the right have used the incident to double down on irresponsible claims. A number of Republican elected officials have gone so far as to blame Biden and Democrats for the shooting. That is unfortunate.
We still don’t know the motive of the shooter, identified as a 20-year-old man armed with an AR-15, the weapon of choice for mass shooters. The FBI says the shooter had bomb devices in his car. But what we do know is that, whether this was a politically motivated shooting or not, it was undoubtedly an act that has shaken America. Yes, this country is deeply divided over our shared future. But political violence is anathema to a democracy, where governance is decided at the ballot box.
Trump and Republican leaders meeting at the GOP National Convention in Milwaukee this week have a particular responsibility not to use the shooting as a tool to rile up their base. They must recognize that the U.S. is a powder keg right now, and tamp down the heated rhetoric before it can spark. By now, they must realize that violence, once unleashed, is nonpartisan.