Editorial Board
WSJ, July 14, 2023
“… leaders on both sides need to stop describing the stakes of the election in apocalyptic terms. Democracy won’t end if one or the other candidate is elected. Fascism is not aborning if Mr. Trump wins, unless you have little faith in American institutions.”
The assassination attempt against Donald Trump on Saturday evening is a horrific moment for America that could have been much worse. But we can’t say it comes as a complete surprise. Political hostility and hateful rhetoric have been rising to a decibel level that far too often in the American past has led to violence and attempted murder. Some of us still remember 1968 all too well.
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It’s nothing short of miraculous that Mr. Trump avoided death by a literal inch. The former President can’t help but think that Providence played some role in sparing him, as Ronald Reagan is said to have thought after he was shot and survived in 1981. The country was spared, too, from what could have been a furious cycle of retribution.
Yet a man was killed and two others seriously wounded at a rally that was supposed to celebrate their political allegiance and democratic participation. The Secret Service killed the alleged assassin, but the obvious question is how he could have gained the high ground atop a building near enough to be able to take those shots at the former President. Mr. Trump’s rallies are severe security tests, but the Secret Service has had years to know how to protect him at these events.
It isn’t enough to say the shooter was outside the security perimeter of metal detectors and bag searches. The motivations of the alleged shooter—identified by law enforcement early Sunday as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa.—and whether he had accomplices may tell us more about how he was able to get in close shooting range. … [To read the full article, click here]