At approximately 6:11 p.m. ET Saturday, former President Donald Trump was shot at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. Using an AR-15, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks not only struck the former president but killed audience member Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief from Buffalo Township, Pennsylvania. Comperatore died in an act of heroism, shielding his family from the bullets that killed him.
Following a brief stay at Butler Memorial Hospital, Trump made a post on his social media site, Truth Social, saying, “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper right part of my ear.”
It is too early for anyone to say anything about Crooks’ motive; however, that did not stop people from attributing the attempt to the so-called “deep state,” the Democratic Party and even Trump himself.
Politicians like Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, accused Biden and the left for provoking the would-be assassin. Within two hours of the incident, Vance made claims that the Biden campaign’s rhetoric casting Trump as a fascist and authoritarian that needs to be stopped led directly to the shooting.
In a more extreme case, representative Mike Collins of Georgia took to social media to say that President Biden “called the order” on the former President.
Even at home, Alabama’s Lieutenant Governor, Will Ainsworth, posted a politically-laced statement saying the left had “declared a jihadist-style attack” on traditional Christian values. Ainsworth also took time to call the “radical left” groomers and anti-police. In calling for a more godly and policy-driven debate instead of rhetoric that seeks to “demonize and destroy” Trump, Ainsworth decried the “evil incarnate” agenda of his political opponents.
On the other side of the coin, some equally vile comments by fringe leftists about a potential staging of the shooting appeared on X (formally known as Twitter). An X user posted, “You ever seen the Secret Service allow someone who supposedly was just shot at to pose for pictures?” Democratic staffer Jacqueline Marsaw was removed from her position after making a Facebook post reading, “I don’t condone violence but please get you some shooting lessons so you don’t miss next time ooops that wasn’t me talking.” As well, Colorado State House Representative Steven Woodrow posted, “The last thing America needed was sympathy for the devil but here we are.”
It seems that some people are simply ignoring the significance and danger of this moment. Is it too much to ask for people to be responsible while we have little to no facts about the shooter’s motive?
Here are a few facts we do know.
It takes a sick and twisted person to get on top of a rooftop and want to shoot at a crowd of people, let alone the former president of the United States. It does not matter what the assailant’s affiliations, race or beliefs were; his actions were a direct attack on our democracy.
Other leading political figures, like Joe Biden, attempted to directly reach out to the Comperatore family to wish his condolences, though the contact was declined by widow Helen Comperatore. She claimed her husband was a devout Republican and wouldn’t have wanted her to talk to Biden. Former president Donald Trump followed suit, reaching out to the family the following Tuesday.
This is not the first time in recent history that there has been an assassination attempt on political figures at a public event. In June 2017, James Hodgkinson opened fire and wounded five politicians, including House GOP whip Steve Scalise. The waters of our politics are excessively heated and seem to be boiling over. In recent years, our country’s political scene has rewarded demagogues of all shapes and sizes who stigmatize their opponents and stoke the fire of hate.
Crooks’ actions and the sudden vile reaction from people across the country are symptoms of a greater, much darker sickness plaguing the American soul.
Once again, we have yet to learn why Crooks did what he did. Regardless of why he did it, far too many of our fellow countrymen view their political opponents as the enemy. They believe that they should seek retribution and violence against them. This very idea is an affront to all we believe in as Americans.
In the words of President Biden during his Oval Office address Sunday night, “in America, we solve our differences at the ballot box, not by bullets.”
As our nation comes to terms with the attempted assassination of one of our leading political figures, we must confront the fact that our words and actions have consequences. It is on every one of us to hold accountable those who seek to bring out the worst in us and to remember that this experiment called America is bigger than just you and me. It is bigger than our disagreements and quarrels.
We can continue to have good-faith discussions and healthy disagreements with each other; after all, that’s what politics are. We need to recognize that we are all fighting for the same thing: the success of the American experiment.
Please join me in thinking of and praying for those affected by the horrendous acts of violence on Saturday: the former President, Comperatore’s family and, of course, our country.
