No one would have expected gun shots to ring in a political rally. But the fact that Trump had to be whisked off stage with a bloodied face revealed the extent to which the political environment had been poisoned or polarised. And in a country where it appears easier to get a weapon than a pack of cigarettes or alcohol, the issue of gun control is allergic to the conservatives and the Republicans.
Four Presidents of America have been felled and the one that comes to mind is that of John F Kennedy in 1963 at Texas. The Warren Commission established in 1964 that both Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby acted alone; but till this day conspiracy theories continue to swirl around the killing.
In the case of the attempted assassination of Trump, very little is known of the motive, perhaps nothing at all. And all that can be surmised will only be second hand as the 20-year old shooter has been shot and killed at the scene.
Civility has prevailed in the aftermath of the Trump shooting with President Joe Biden speaking on the phone to his political opponent in what has been described as a decent conversation.
Hopefully, it will stay this way especially as the political scenario has literally descended into a free for all in the aftermath of the November 2020 election. Riots of January 6 on Capitol Hill left many blaming the former President for actively encouraging the mob and thus tacitly participating in the attack on democracy.
Republican convention
All indications are that the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will go on as planned perhaps with increased gusto in the wake of the attack on Trump. The extremists in the Grand Old Party have not hesitated in the past to go after the Deep State, the Left and government agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And there is little to believe there will be any change in perceptions over a two- or three-day period.
The Republicans on Capitol Hill have already announced investigations by panels of the Secret Service, the FBI and Homeland Security. And the head of the Secret Service has been asked to appear on July 22.
For now the focus is on the security lapse with questions of how a gunman could get within a few hundred feet of a former President with an AR-15 rifle. .
Political conventions usually give a “bounce” to candidates and Trump would have received one even without the latest incident; hence it will have to be seen how much the shooting would have impacted the candidate and how Trump sees the incident. At the time of the bullet grazing his right ear the former President was apparently showing charts and figures pertaining to Immigration; and border control is an important issue in the November 5 elections.
Where Trump and the GOP have to be careful is on guns and gun control. The customary argument of the far right has been that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”; and this in a country where an estimated 50,000 die from gun related injuries every year. The conservatives have found a way to blame almost anything and everybody for weapons related homicides and have effectively used their perceived Second Amendment Rights to oppose even small movement on hand guns and semi automatic rifles.
Trump and the far right of the GOP have had nothing but scorn for Biden and his administration. That being the case, the present White House will have a tough time selling the idea of any independent investigation of the shooting in Pennsylvania. For now America will have to be reconciled to a more polarised setting.
The writer is a senior journalist who has reported from Washington DC on North America and United Nations