Assassination

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.