A would-be assassin targets Trump. What it could mean for America.
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Just a warning, you're going to hear the sound of gunfire in this episode. Shortly after 6 o'clock Eastern on Saturday, a would-be assassin took aim at former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Take a look at what happened. Down, down, down, down, down.

Eyewitnesses told the media they saw a man with a rifle and alerted police. Saw the guy move from roof to roof, told an officer that he was on the roof. And when I turned around to go back to where I was is when the gunshots started and I

Then it was just chaos. Trump and two others were injured and one person was killed. That victim has been identified as Corey Comperatore. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told reporters about Comperatore at a press conference on Sunday. Corey was a girl dad. Corey was a firefighter. Corey went to church every Sunday. Corey loved his community. And most especially, Corey loved his family.

Corey was an avid supporter of the former president and was so excited to be there last night with him in the community. Secret Service shot and killed the alleged gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. He used an AR-15-style weapon from a nearby rooftop. Investigators believe the weapon was bought legally by his father, and law enforcement also found at least one explosive device in his vehicle.

Crooks was a registered Republican but gave $15 to a progressive political action committee in 2021.

Law enforcement has yet to identify a motive or an ideology. Early Sunday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social saying, quote, Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will fear not, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness. Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.

In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united and show our true character as Americans, remaining strong and determined and not allowing evil to win. I truly love our country and love you all and look forward to speaking to our great nation this week from Wisconsin. Sunday afternoon, speaking from the Roosevelt Room at the White House, President Biden ordered an independent review of the national security measures in place at Trump's rally.

Just hours after the attack, Biden had condemned the attempted assassination. There's no place in America for this kind of violence. It's sick. It's sick. It's one of the reasons why we have to unite this country.

We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this. But despite the calls for civility, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who's on Trump's short list of vice presidential picks, tweeted, quote, Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination.

Consider this. For the first time in decades, a presidential candidate has been the target of an assassination plot. How might Saturday's events affect an already divided nation? Coming up, we will talk to author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin about what history can tell us about this moment. From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow.

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It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow. The nation is still trying to make sense of an assassination attempt against former President Trump. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies are currently investigating the alleged perpetrator who was shot by the Secret Service, looking at his background and motivations and associations.

And there's a lot of speculation from politicians, from people on social media and elsewhere about what this all means for the November election. Like with any other major news event, there is a lot of value in taking a step back and seeing how history can help us make sense of this moment. Because this is not the first time an assassination attempt has been made at a U.S. campaign event.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is with us now. She has written biographies of numerous U.S. presidents, including Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon B. Johnson. Her latest book is An Unfinished Love Story, A Personal History of the 1960s. Doris Kearns Goodwin, thank you so much for joining us. Oh, I'm glad to be with you today, Scott. I want to start with just what you were thinking when you saw what happened Saturday night.

I guess what was going through my mind is just what can history help us in learning about other times when candidates were running for the presidency and were shot? And somehow I always go back to, can we find perspective? Can we find lessons? Are there something to learn from the past? And my mind went back initially to Teddy Roosevelt.

I'm always going back to the past somehow to find solace in the present, I think. And, you know, as you know, he was running as a third-party candidate on the Bull Moose ticket, and he was about to go to a big speech event, and a would-be assassin right in front of the crowd fired directly into his chest.

He collapsed on the seat of the car. He ordered the car against the doctor's advice, go to the auditorium. I'm not going to go to the hospital until this is over. So he went before the crowd and he assured them, as he said, it takes more than that to kill a bull moose.

He finished 84 minutes in this speech, and then he finally agreed to go to the hospital. And what's interesting in relation to today is that the Democratic opponent, Wilson, offered to suspend his campaign as long as Teddy was in the hospital. He declined. He said the fight should go on.

And then, what's really relevant for today, the dramatic attack kindled the nation's empathy, and one Democratic official articulated the worst fears of the Democrats, that the bullet that rests in Roosevelt's chest has killed Wilson for the presidency.

But in the end, the fundamentals of the election prevailed. So all those things just have echoes for today as I was putting myself back in that period of time of 1912. Yeah, and there are some really interesting parallels. You know, it's a former president trying to return to the White House. It's a New Yorker. Donald Trump did not deliver a speech for more than an hour, but he did pump his fist to the crowd several times from the stage, again, getting into the SUV. And that moment in 1912 really shows that

that there can be a lot of momentum, a lot of sympathy for a candidate after a moment like this. Absolutely, and I think that's true. I mean, that picture of Donald Trump with his fist in the air and saying to the people, fight, fight, fight, and looking courageous and looking strong and resilient was what Teddy Roosevelt was able to accomplish at the same time. And those are moments when the whole country is absorbed in watching how somebody reacts in that moment. So I think there is a similarity between the two of them in that sense.

Another shooting that that several people were immediately talking about is that of George Wallace in 1972. There have been a lot of comparisons to George Wallace over the years between George Wallace and Donald Trump in terms of the rhetoric, in terms of the anger that that that motivates the candidate and the candidate's base. And now there is another similarity, an assassination attempt. Of course, Wallace was much more seriously injured than Trump. But but what do you think we can learn from that moment?

You know, what interested me when I started thinking about that assassination attempt, Martin Luther King had labeled him the most dangerous racist in America. Now, suddenly, things changed. He was shot five times in the stomach, and he survived, but was paralyzed from the waist down and left in chronic pain, and something changed in his life. Somehow, he became a born-again Christian. He sought forgiveness from the black community. He acknowledged that he had been wrong to stand for segregation.

and then he ran for governor again with this whole change philosophy anyone with ninety percent of the african-american vote and it turned really double black registration and he appointed hundreds of african-americans to post then john lewis when wallace died publicly forgave him he wrote an op ed in the new york times saying he had become a changed man he'd assumed responsibility for the harm that he had caused

and that somehow he could never forget, but he could forgive. So that's a really interesting question as to whether such a near-death experience like this can change a person. Will it change not only Trump's rhetoric? Will it change who he is? This is what these days and weeks and months ahead are going to show.

And Trump in his initial statement so far has been for him relatively restrained. But but many other Republicans, including people who seem to be on the on the short list of contenders of Trump's vice presidential nominee, a decision he's going to make within the next few days, have been very quick to lay the blame on the shooting on the political left for the way that they've talked about their concerns about a Trump presidency. How important is it to you?

the way this is talked about and campaigned on in the coming weeks in terms of what this will do to the trajectory of the political mood here.

I mean, my own sense is that the political rhetoric, everybody's going to want it to be toned down. And it'll be interesting to see whether those vice presidential potential candidates who spoke most quickly about laying the blame on the political left, whether that will be a scar for Trump or whether he'll just continue to say, well, that's okay. They said it then, but they won't say it now. I mean, words matter at a time like this. Words matter always in moments like this. Mm-hmm.

You mentioned that you look to the past to feel hopeful at times about the future. And I think not many people listening right now feel particularly hopeful about the trajectory of the country and the path that our politics is on. In your mind, is there anything to be hopeful, to be optimistic about when you look at the state of things in the United States and the presidential campaign and the political climate?

It's not so much that the moments right now give us a sense of optimism, but if we look at the past, we have been through really, really rough times before. Worse than this time, in my judgment. Not worse than my lifetime, but certainly the Civil War, the early days of the Great Depression, the early days of World War II.

and each one of those events ended uh... with america coming through with greater strength you know what when reagan was shot uh... and people started talking then about we had a sick society and what he said which i think was so hopeful and so right on tone what he said six societies don't have young men like the secret service agent who had saved him or jim brady six societies don't make people like us proud to be american

everybody's saying we have a sick society. We also have a great society. And I think we've got to remember that these people acted with courage, the Secret Service agents did, the people themselves did, and somehow we're going to have to see the other side of this. Certainly what Lyndon Johnson did after John Kennedy's assassination,

he was able to bring the congress together to pass the civil rights bill in memoriam for john kennedy he was able to say that we have to fight extremism and come together and he was bipartisan leader for those first couple years there are moments that can be used in a positive way and i think we've just got a hope we did that before and we can do that again that's presidential historian doris kern's good one thank you so much for joining us and thank you for your perspective you're welcome scott thank you for letting history take so much time i love it so much

This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlam and Catherine Fink. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. One more thing before we go, you can now enjoy the Consider This newsletter. We still hope you break down a major story of the day, but you will also get to know our producers and hosts and some moments of joy from the All Things Considered team. You can sign up at npr.org slash consider this newsletter. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow.

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