BUTLER, Pa. — The day after the shocking near-assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Americans are wondering whether the political polarization sweeping the nation has become too severe.
An outpouring of condolences and calls for a calming of outrage came from across the country and the world as leaders across the political spectrum expressed shock and horror at the first shooting of a U.S. president since Ronald Reagan was nearly killed as he left a Washington hotel more than 40 years ago.
“We’re all Americans and we need to treat each other with dignity and respect,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday in an interview on NBC News’ “Weekend Today,” echoing a Trump supporter’s attack on President Joe Biden, who used the word “bullseye” during a call with a campaign donor last week.
“So I know that Biden’s comments did not mean what was implied there,” Johnson said of Biden’s remarks on Sunday, but added that “that kind of language on either side should be condemned.”
Violence tends to beget more violence, and experts fear the shooting could intensify rather than ease tensions ahead of a presidential election that is seen as an existential threat to both sides.
“This is a very dark moment in history, and unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that political violence will end with this election season,” said Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies domestic and international terrorism. “A range of scenarios, from low-level vigilante violence to more high-profile assassination attempts, will characterize the coming months.”
Once violence is seen as a legitimate means of resolving political conflict, “it’s hard to see how to reverse that development,” Ware added.
Violent rhetoric has become more common in political campaigns in recent years, and we have seen occasional violent clashes between protesters, opponents and police, but assassinations are something not seen in American politics in decades.
Trump, who was shot in the ear, was released from hospital on Saturday night, but two spectators who were seriously injured remain hospitalized. One of them has died.
“At this moment, it is more important than ever that we come together, show our true character as Americans, remain strong and resolute, and do not let evil win,” Trump wrote on the website Truth Social on Sunday morning.
Witnesses at the rally described chaotic scenes in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
Attendees in the front row of the rally heard a series of popping sounds and saw Secret Service agents jump onto the stage. One agent, who identified herself as Erin, told NBC News she saw blood in Trump’s ear. She said she wasn’t worried about her own safety, “We were just worried about him,” she said of Trump.
Investigators have not yet said how the shooter, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was able to get close enough to Trump to shoot him.
Police have also not released any details about the motive of Crooks, who was shot and killed by police moments after the shooting. Voter registration records show Crooks was a registered Republican, but authorities have not yet revealed a political motive for the shooting.
Some prominent Republicans pointed to Biden’s comments about motive even before the shooter was identified. Biden’s supporters countered by pointing to the number of times the sitting president has condemned political violence.
Expert Warned He cautioned against jumping to partisan conclusions about Crooks’ motives, noting that shooters often suffer from mental illness, which makes their motives less understandable to the public. John Hinckley, who plotted to kill President Reagan, said he was just trying to impress Jodie Foster after falling for her performance in Taxi Driver. Jared Loughner, who shot and killed former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and wrote what one scholar called “a toxic conspiracy of left- and right-wing conspiracy theories, from Marx to Hitler to heavy metal.”
Anthony Guglielmi, spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, denied claims that the Trump campaign had requested more funds but been turned down.
“There are false allegations that members of the former president’s team requested additional security resources and were denied,” he posted on X.
“This is simply untrue. In fact, we have added protection resources and technology and capabilities as part of our increased pace of campaign travel.”
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee sent a letter Sunday demanding answers from his Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security superiors.
“The significance of this security failure and horrific moment in our nation’s history cannot be understated,” Rep. Mark E. Green (R-Tenn.) said in the letter. “If the bullet’s trajectory had been even slightly different, the assassination attempt on President Trump may have been successful.”
A bipartisan group of House members has rushed through legislation that would increase Secret Service protection for Presidents Trump and Biden, as well as grant it to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has accused Biden of denying official protection for political reasons. (The White House denies this, pointing out that the Department of Homeland Security and congressional leaders are responsible for such decisions.)
“Last night’s assassination attempt on former President Trump was a dark moment in our nation’s history. As reports continue to emerge, it is clear that additional protections are needed for all major candidates in the presidential election,” Reps. Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York, and Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, said in a joint statement.
The assassination attempt has upended an already turbulent presidential campaign, with Democrats calling for Biden to resign after his performance at a debate last month left many questioning the 81-year-old’s mental and physical health.
The Republican National Convention is due to begin on Monday to formally nominate Trump, and officials have said the event will go ahead as scheduled with enhanced security measures.
Still, Trump campaign officials have advised staff to avoid campaign offices in Florida and Washington, D.C., until it is safe to do so.
“This is terrible, and this is one of the reasons we have to unite our country,” Biden said in remarks before speaking with Trump late Saturday night. “We cannot tolerate this.”
Former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton issued similar statements condemning the attacks and calling for unity, while allies such as Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer said “political violence in any form has no place in our society.”
David Brown, a Trump supporter from Pittsburgh, told NBC News on Sunday that, like many Americans, he feels the political hostility is getting out of hand.
“We really need to take a deep breath,” Brown said. “I’m friends with a lot of Democrats and they’re great people, but I think we need to recognize that we’ve been demonizing each other too much. We need to look past the noise, so to speak.”
Meanwhile, Panfilo DiCenzo, 40, a former Democrat, saw the shooting as “a sign of where we are politically and socially.”
He pointed to political division and cultural and economic turmoil, which he said had created “a lot of disgruntled people.”
