The phone rang just after 6:30 p.m. Saturday. It was a call from my brother wondering if I was watching TV.
I was, but merely some simplistic pap on the History Channel to kill time waiting for a baseball broadcast to start.
“I think they just shot Trump,” he said.
And so began a surreal evening.
I immediately switched to Fox News Channel coverage, being treated to the sort of scramble to cover live, unscripted events that makes even the network pros look all too human.
Yes, Trump had been shot at a campaign event in Butler. No, it didn’t look to be life-threatening.
Hours later, several thoughts had congealed in this admittedly partisan brain.
- As I anticipated, social media reaction was the sick stew one expects with some posters saying Trump had staged the whole thing. Yes, his campaign is going so well, and Joe Biden is imploding at such a rapid rate, the natural thing would be to stage a false flag assassination attempt that is inches from success just to take the spotlight off imploding Joe.
- Even before Trump’s son posted similar thoughts on social media, I told my wife and son Trump is one tough SOB. Shortly after having his ear seemingly creased by a rifle bullet, Trump was pumping his fist to the crowd as he was ushered off the stage and yelling for them to fight. The crowd began an impromptu chant of “U-S-A.” An iconic photo, shot from a low angle, showed Trump, surrounded by Secret Service agents, blood streaked on his ear and right cheek, pumping his fist against the backdrop of a giant American Flag suspended over him by two cranes. It was akin to the iconic Iwo Jima flag-raising photo from World War II.
- In recent days and weeks I have watched several cable television shows regarding assassinations, ranging from Lincoln, to John and Robert Kennedy. It struck me that this attempt raises a lot of familiar questions. Some witnesses insisted there were two or more shooters from different directions. The supposed sole shooter, now dead, somehow was able to position himself on a nearby roof despite Secret Service anti-snipers deployed on nearby roofs to prevent such. And the BBC had an interview with a guy who insisted he saw the man before the shooting started, tried to alert authorities, and was ignored.
- It made me gag a bit to have statements pour in from prominent politicians on the far left, the very same ones who label Trump as a latter-day Hitler, a threat to democracy, a Putin puppet, a rapist and more, saying how shocked they are and how their sympathies are with Trump. We have yet to learn who the shooter was (not enough time has passed to sanitize any political footprint) but it’s safe to postulate it was a crazed leftist, arguably inflamed by the over-the-top rhetoric that passes for political disagreement these days.
- Trump is one very lucky human being. My son picked up on it immediately. After a few hours, it was noted continually on the Fox coverage, that had Trump not turned his head slightly before the shot, looking first at a large overhead screen and then away, we’d likely be lamenting a successful assassination.
- It was pathetically naive to suggest, as guest after guest, or successive media representatives did, that this event would prompt a ratcheting down of that heated political rhetoric.
- Wonder if the Secret Service now will grant Robert F. Kennedy’s request for protection as a third-party candidate for president?
- Wonder if the head of the Secret Service now will approve requested upgrades for manpower to protect Trump, which previously have been denied?
- Let’s hope there is some transparency regarding the investigations into this incident.
I’m happy that Trump escaped this assassination attempt. I am sad that innocent rally attendees were either killed or injured seriously.
It now is time to answer a lot of questions about how this could happen.
Sam Ross Jr's site 