▲ President Joe Biden addressed his nation from the Oval Office at the White House to again condemn the act in which Trump was injured during a rally in Pennsylvania.Photo Ap

▲ The Republican candidate’s motorcade was closely watched by dozens of police officers upon arrival at the hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, near the auditorium where the Republican event will be held.Afp Photo

▲ Thomas Crooks, Trump’s attacker, when he was in high school in 2021, from where he left a year later.Photo Ap

David Brooks and Jim Cason

Correspondents

The newspaper La Jornada
Monday, July 15, 2024, p. 25

Milwaukee and Washington., Donald Trump arrived as a conquering hero in Milwaukee this Sunday, a quasi-martyr (thanking God for saving him), perfectly using the apparent attempt to assassinate him to consolidate his image as a victim and avenger on behalf of the people. to save America.

In this way, one of the central slogans of his electoral campaign –In the end, they’re not coming for me. They’re coming for you; I’m just preventing that.– names his movement after an apparent assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Never give upthey repeat their propaganda messages, with the iconic photo of him raising his fist as he stands up from the apparent attempt to assassinate him. He announced that although he thought he would not arrive in Milwaukee until Wednesday, he decided to do so this afternoon to show that will not allow a potential murderer set the agenda.

Perhaps even more notable was the religious tone of his messages, declaring this Sunday that It was only God who prevented the worst from happening.; called for American unity and keeping the faith, after promising that he and his convention would be defiant in the face of malice.

The image taken by Evan Vucci, a photographer for the AP agency, became iconic, especially for the Trump movement, when it captures the tycoon getting up with his face covered in blood surrounded by Secret Service agents, with an American flag waving under a clear sky and his fist raised; it could not be more perfect for his campaign. The heroic leader willing to risk his life for his followers and to make America great again.

And he is arriving in Milwaukee now to preside over the Republican National Convention that starts today and where he will be formally crowned presidential candidate before a party where he was previously the most powerful figure, but now, with his feat, he arrives as king.

For Joe Biden and the Democrats, this whole episode puts them on a tightrope, where they must first express their prayers and good wishes, condemn the violence, and call for patriotic unity in the face of what happened, while looking for a way to return to the race against a former president who plays with destroying the democratic process, even with violence, if necessary.

Biden, in his role as president-consoler – and pretending for now that he is not a candidate, but a national leader – called on the country to unite and reject violence and hatred. He reported that he held a brief but good telephone conversation with his opponent.

In a first address and later in another broadcast live on television to the nation – which also served as another event to show his capacity as a leader and try to leave behind the damage of his debacle in the debate with Trump more than two weeks ago – he reiterated his message of unity. He stressed that There is no place in America for this kind of violence. and that “an attempted assassination is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation… it is not who we are as a nation.” He insisted that Nothing is more important than unity right now.

He asked lower the temperature of the electoral contest –We are not enemies–. He denounced political violence against political figures and said that this is not the way to proceed.

Politically, the images of the moment are of a president and Democratic candidate already weakened by the doubts of his colleagues and the electorate about his physical and mental condition next to a self-proclaimed hero who survived an attack raising his fist and shouting fight (according to his campaign version, because others say he was just saying wait).

However, it is not clear that the shooting at Trump’s rally and his ear injury will have a major effect on electoral trends or will allow him to gain more support beyond his own base. So far, analysts are only willing to say that he may be able to mobilize more of his marginal supporters, that is, those who are not usually so active.

But the incident, if confirmed to be an assassination attempt, would be the first assassination attempt on a president or former president since March 1981 under Ronald Reagan.

Almost all political leaders, public figures and media spoke out against political violence. Editorials in The New York Times and The Washington Post They warned about the implications of political violence and how it can never be tolerated, insisting that it is antithetical to his country (something historians might debate).

But with all that, with the bullets fired in Pennsylvania that wounded the former president and killed a firefighter, a political panorama already ominous by the constant threat of violence is further darkened, much of it driven by those who are now victims of it, where there is open talk of the possibility of a civil war if the Republican criminal, convicted and who previously promoted a coup after the last election does not win in November. It is worth noting that neither Trump nor the leaders of his party are committed to respecting the results of the election if it does not favor them.

They share blame

In fact, over the past 24 hours, several Republican lawmakers and aides have been busy, even though there are not many details about the incident, arguing that it was all the Democrats’ fault. As their party’s master has taught them, they have sought to reverse their opponents’ script on promoting political violence by their adversaries, and now they blame Biden and others for sow possible violence over his rhetoric about how the right is threatening democracy.

Furthermore, all sorts of speculation about the incident continues to erupt on social media, mostly by right-wingers who believe that the whole thing was choreographed and even that Biden was somehow directly involved, and of course, the Deep State.

The media repeats that this is a country polarizedand that this fuels the climate of violence. But this generalization is not necessarily true in all areas, and perhaps the most notable thing about this is that there is a consensus among the majority in this nation: disapproval of both candidates.

In a new Pew Research Center poll, a majority—not divided—say they are ashamed of both candidates.

The investigation

The FBI has determined that the incident was an attempted murder, and is now also proceeding as if it were a potential act of murder. domestic terrorism.

The suspect, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was shot and killed by Secret Service officers, the AP reported. No motive has been identified, other than that he was registered as a Republican with no criminal record and grew up in a predominantly white, upper-middle-class Pittsburgh suburb.