Saturday, July 13th, 2024, will be one of those days in American history about which, years from now, people will still be talking about — the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. It will be one of those days, like the day President Reagan was shot, the days of the shuttle disasters, about which people for years will be saying, “I remember I was at X doing Y when that happened.”
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My wife and I were enjoying our usual Saturday lunch date when suddenly, our favorite Susitna Valley eating place went abuzz. A television above the bar came on, and someone cried out, “The President has been shot!” Before I could ask, someone called, “President Biden?”
“No. Trump,” the reply came.
Over the next hour or so, details unfolded. The shooter was dead; the former president was safe. And an attendee was killed.
Previously on RedState: AP Reports Trump Rally Shooter Dead
UPDATE: Butler County DA Confirms Attendee Killed at Trump Rally
BREAKING: Trump Shot in the Ear During Pennsylvania Rally; Shooter Killed
A man at the next table, a visitor to the Great Land from Pennsylvania, looked at me and said, “Well, Trump just won the election.” Our esteemed veteran scribe streiff agrees.
First of all: Our hearts go out to the family of the attendee who was killed. The shooter has also reportedly been killed, but we can have little, if any, sympathy for that person.
But there is this to consider: This will be remembered as the event of the 2024 election. This photo of Trump, bloodied but uncowed, raising a fist in defiance, with an American flag seemingly inverted behind him, is one of the most powerful political images I’ve ever seen.
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We will be seeing it more in days to come. This photo is worth — easily — a hundred thousand votes.
Even so, our primary concern here should not be political. This is one of those moments when we must remember that we are all Americans and that political passions should never be inflamed to the degree where someone, even some isolated nut, thinks this is the appropriate recourse. There is more to this, after all, than just the shooter; the politicians and activists who stoked this kind of hatred had damned well better be doing some serious thinking about their behavior. Perhaps, just perhaps, for a while — maybe even until the election — some return to sanity will arise from this despicable act, and some civility will return to our national debate.
We’ll have to wait and see. As we saw some time after the infamous 9-11 attacks, the nation has a way of coming together after horrible events — for a while.
As I conclude writing this, news came through from the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., that the former president is resting and in good spirits.
History was made today. This instance was a loathsome instance of political violence, the attempted assassination of a former President of the United States of America. History turns on such events, and history will certainly turn on this one. Former President Donald Trump was made a target; the assassin failed and, in the doing, gave us one of the most vivid images of defiance I’ve ever seen.
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The assassin, who has not yet been identified, no doubt intended to make Donald Trump a martyr. Instead, he has very likely made him the 47th President of the United States.