Share
The Editorial Board
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pa., on Saturday.
The assassination attempt against Donald Trump on Saturday evening is a horrific moment for America that could have been much worse. But we can’t say it comes as a complete surprise. Political hostility and hateful rhetoric have been rising to a decibel level that far too often in the American past has led to violence and attempted murder. Some of us still remember 1968 all too well.
***
It’s nothing short of miraculous that Mr. Trump avoided death by a literal inch. The former President can’t help but think that Providence played some role in sparing him, as Ronald Reagan is said to have thought after he was shot and survived in 1981. The country was spared, too, from what could have been a furious cycle of retribution.
Yet a man was killed and two others seriously wounded at a rally that was supposed to celebrate their political allegiance and democratic participation. The Secret Service killed the alleged assassin, but the obvious question is how he could have gained the high ground atop a building near enough to be able to take those shots at the former President. Mr. Trump’s rallies are severe security tests, but the Secret Service has had years to know how to protect him at these events.
It isn’t enough to say the shooter was outside the security perimeter of metal detectors and bag searches. The motivations of the alleged shooter—identified by law enforcement early Sunday as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa.—and whether he had accomplices may tell us more about how he was able to get in close shooting range.
But the leaders of the Secret Service have some explaining to do. Transparency in the investigation will be critical to avoid the spread of conspiracy theories on the right and left. On Saturday night social media was full of anti-Trump posters saying the shooting was staged to help his campaign.
President Biden spoke to the country from his weekend home in Delaware, as he should have done, and he properly denounced “political violence.” So did leaders of both political parties. But the statements will amount to little if they aren’t followed with a change in behavior and rhetoric.
The shooter alone is responsible for his actions. But leaders on both sides need to stop describing the stakes of the election in apocalyptic terms. Democracy won’t end if one or the other candidate is elected. Fascism is not aborning if Mr. Trump wins, unless you have little faith in American institutions.
We agree with former Attorney General Bill Barr’s statement Saturday night: “The Democrats have to stop their grossly irresponsible talk about Trump being an existential threat to democracy—he is not.”
One great risk is that the shooting in Butler, Pa., will cause some on the right to seek violent revenge. This is where Mr. Trump and the Republicans have an obligation—and a political opportunity—at their convention in Milwaukee and through November.
If they weren’t already, Americans after Saturday will be looking for stable, reassuring leadership. The photo of Mr. Trump raising his fist as he was led off stage by the Secret Service with a bloody face was a show of personal fortitude that will echo through the campaign. No one doubts his willingness to fight, and his initial statement Saturday night was a notable and encouraging show of restraint and gratitude.
His opportunity now is to present himself as someone who can rise above the attack on his life and unite the country. He will make a mistake if he blames Democrats for the assassination attempt.
He will win over more Americans if he tells his followers that they need to fight peacefully and within the system. If the Trump campaign is smart, and thinking about the country as well as the election, it will make the theme of Milwaukee a call to political unity and the better angels of American nature.
That leaves plenty of room for criticizing Democrats and their failed policies. But the country wants civil disagreement and discourse, not civil war.
The near assassination of Donald Trump could be a moment that catalyzes more hatred and an even worse cycle of violence. If that is how it goes, God help us.
Or it could be a redemptive moment that leads to introspection and political debate that is fierce but not cast as Armageddon. The country was spared the worst on Saturday and this is a chance to pull out of a partisan death spiral. That is the leadership Americans are desperate to se
Fonte: The wall street journal
