And now, an assassination attempt
Strap on your seat belts, the ride ahead could be wild.
Our troubling march toward November continues. What does anyone say in response to an assassination attempt? The first thing, as almost everyone has said, is thank God Donald J. Trump survived with a small wound to one ear.
Second, thank God for the Secret Service, who killed the shooter, covered Trump from every angle and got him off the stage and to a hospital for treatment.
They were heroic, but of course, that is in their job description. They were effective, too. Also, part of the job. It was also good that Trump was able to show everyone he was still feisty and eager to fight on.
All that aside, except for innocent victims in the line of fire (among them a man who was killed trying to protect his family) and the lingering thought that the shooter also had prepared explosives at his home near Butler for use on who knows what, we’re exactly where we were before the incident.
The Republicans are set to formally nominate Trump in Milwaukee, where their convention begins Monday.
He has been embraced by lots of people, including a group of whom want America to feel a lot like Germany between the wars. Not his idea, he claims, but the Heritage Foundations plan for 2025 has his ideas written all over it.
So now we have a Republican candidate who has been wounded on the trail, and we don’t know what that means.
All we can say is that Teddy Roosevelt gave a campaign speech with a bullet in him because he was that tough. Donald Trump is not that tough. Media is rolling out its sad John and Robert Kennedy news photos to remind us all we remain barbarians.
All that, and we have a Democratic candidate who must spend precious time trying to convince everyone he is not the uncle who shows up at the wedding and stumbles into the cake.
A fine situation, I would suggest.
There is a way to get through this.
First, ignore anything speculative about the shooting. Newt Gingrich and a small collection of other right wingers have already suggested somehow Joe Biden is to blame.
Some suggested western Pennsylvania authorities should order his arrest.
All bullshit, predictable right-wing bullshit.
And of course, a House Committee will hold investigative hearings to get to the “bottom” of it all.
Somehow, that will lead to Hunter Biden’s laptop, or maybe Hillary Clinton’s emails or some equivalent.
Perhaps someone will ask how a young man got his hands on an assault rifle (dad?) and the ammo he needed for the attack? Maybe the former president’s injury will make them call for gun controls, controls that should have been in place in the wake of the slaughter of lots of people, many of them school children, by other madmen.
I don’t know.
I do suspect the incident will make Trump’s loyal followers even more loyal. Nothing wrong with that. He is likely to have a bonanza of fund raising, too.
Why?
Because.
Keep every part you can cross tightly crossed. We are about to continue into even more interesting times.
Charlie Madigan was a reporter and editor for 40 years for United Press International and The Chicago Tribune. He writes and lives in Evanston, Ill.
I believe it's possible that Trump will get a bump in the polls because of this. I'm not surprised that people would try to implicate Biden in this. But I also believe that if Trump could have staged something like this, he would have done so. I don't believe that's the case. But if he thought it would work, he probably would have tried to do something like this.