Assassination

Again? That was the immediate reaction I had when the Associated Press bulletin popped up on my phone as I was watching copious amounts of football on a Sunday afternoon: “BREAKING: Trump was the subject of an ‘apparent assassination attempt’ at his Florida golf club, FBI says.” The second question immediately followed: how on Earth could this happen again?  Fortunately, unlike the incident in July when Donald Trump had to duck and cover on stage during a rally and spend a few days with a bandage on his ear, the former president wasn’t hurt this time around. The Secret Service detail prevented the attack from actually occurring, spotting a rifle scope through the trees as Trump was playing a round of golf at his Palm Beach, Florida resort.

What happens when you continually demonize someone as “Hitler,” insist that he is “a dictator” and “a threat to democracy?” Why, you get chaps like Thomas Matthew Crooks, who tried to kill Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, two months ago. Yesterday, Crooks was joined by Ryan Wesley Routh, a self-described “revolutionary.” Routh who showed up at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach with an AK-style rifle and a GoPro video camera. The Secret Service espied him in the underbrush a few hundred yards from President Trump. He fled the scene after the agents opened fire on him but was soon apprehended by the local police.

“The attempt to end my husband's life was a horrible, distressing experience,” Melania Trump, former first lady, said in a polished video on her social media pages Tuesday. The short reel was a promo for her new memoir coming out on October 8, per the book’s Amazon page. https://twitter.com/i/status/1833476085998063741 Melania continued: “Now, the silence around it feels heavy. I can’t help but wonder, why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech? There is definitely more to the story, and we need to uncover the truth.” Cockburn was riveted as he watched Melania’s beautifully edited face fade into the background and her new book, titled Melania, appear with the words “order now, melaniatrump.com.

It’s less than sixty days to go until Election Day and the race could not be closer. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are due to debate tomorrow night in what could be one of the most consequential clashes of modern times. So, with all eyes on the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, who better to ask about Trump’s mindset than the Brit who knows him best? Step forward Piers Morgan, who appears on today’s Americano podcast with Andrew Neil and Freddy Gray. After the shocking assassination attempt in July, Gray asked, has the Donald now softened and changed?

US Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, the person charged with ensuring Donald Trump’s safety and that of everyone at the president’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has resigned after admitting in a letter the agency “fell short” on the day fireman Corey Comperatore lost his life and Trump was centimeters away from losing his at the hands of shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks. Cheatle, whom the New York Post reports “landed her role thanks largely to a close relationship with First Lady Jill Biden,” was eviscerated Monday by the House Oversight Committee.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin President Donald Trump arrived at Thursday night’s convention to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for president but, more importantly, to inspire a nation with hope. The president started his much anticipated speech by retelling the events of the attempt on his life at Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. “I’ll tell you what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell,” Trump told the crowd. As he walked through the events that day, attendees cried and laughed with the president — who retained his sense of humor after the senseless attack. He praised the crowd in Pennsylvania for their courage and calm amid the bullets, saying their refusal to stampede “saved many lives.

It’s been a rough few days over at MSNBC. Since the attempted assassination on Donald Trump over the weekend, the network seems to be the one unable to regain its footing. From J-13 truthers to The Lord of the Rings conspiracies, here’s Cockburn’s rundown of everything that's gone wrong so far. Much like Joe Biden’s weekly routine, MSNBC got off to a shaky start on Monday after it pulled Morning Joe from air following the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. Executives were worried Mika Brzezinski planned to pull out her hand-stitched Trump voodoo doll. Whatever the couple had cooked up, Joe Scarborough was not happy that they weren’t able to pull it off.

The conventional wisdom is that the race for the presidency fundamentally changed with the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. That’s wrong. The failed attempt to kill Donald Trump didn’t change trends in this election; it reinforced them.   The shooting reinforced public images about four distinct issues.  Trump’s strength and determination;  Biden’s weakness, politically, physically and cognitively;  Trump’s lead in the battleground states he needs to win reelection; and  The failure of basic governmental institutions, such as the Secret Service, to do their job  The enduring image of the Saturday shooting is the photo of the former president as he leaves the stage.

Last week at a fundraiser, Joe Biden said that it was time to get beyond his poor performance at his June 27 debate with Donald Trump. Now, said Biden, “it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”  Politico described that as a “forceful message from Biden.” I guess someone was paying attention. Shortly after 6 p.m. ET last night, just minutes after Donald Trump took the stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, several shots rang out. One person was killed, two were seriously wounded. The real target, of course, was the former president. He escaped with a flesh wound to the top of his right ear. Images of a defiant Trump, bloodied but waving his fist in the air as he was shuttled off stage by a gaggle of Secret Service agents, have flooded the internet.

The iconic images are already dominating the airwaves. Trump, blood running down his face from a bullet that hit his right ear, urges the Secret Service detail to wait as they try to usher him off the stage at his rally in Pennsylvania. He raises a fist to the crowd and tells them, “Fight. Fight. Fight.” Despite likely being a different head-tilt or a gust of wind away from losing his life, the former president’s instinct was to reassure his supporters that he was OK and that he was going to stay in the fight. Compare this reaction to the one displayed by our current president, Joe Biden. It took President Biden more than an hour and a half to release a short statement about the incident: I have been briefed on the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania.

Presidential candidates don’t normally receive Secret Service protection until the summer before the election. But these are not normal times. They are dangerous ones — for candidates, elected officials and federal judges. When candidates face lethal threats, as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did last week, it’s time to give them protection. The decision is up to President Biden. If he orders the Secret Service to protect Kennedy, it’s done. If not, not. And “not” is Biden’s current decision. It’s a dangerous, mean-spirited political calculation. Political? Yes, surrounding Kennedy with a Secret Service detail elevates his status as a serious candidate. That doesn’t help Biden’s own candidacy.