Tragedy at Trump rally upends election campaign – for now
The 2024 election campaign has a new iconic image: Donald Trump, moments after narrowly avoiding serious injury or death from an assassin’s bullets, standing with his fist raised, lines of blood streaked across his face, an American flag billowing in the breeze behind him.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!” the former president said, as some of the supporters, who moments before had feared for their lives, began cheering.
The bloodshed in Pennsylvania will leave a lasting mark on the American psyche, puncturing the veneer of security around the highest levels of presidential politics – of magnetic screening, bulletproof limousines and heavily armed Secret Service agents. Even former presidents are not insulated from the violence that can erupt in everyday American life.
It was also a dramatic moment in American political history; one that is sure to be replayed in video clips, still photographs and testimonial accounts throughout the course of this presidential campaign and in campaigns to come.
In a rare address from the Oval Office Sunday evening, President Joe Biden called on Americans to cool the temperature around political debate.
“(It) must never be a battlefield and, God forbid, a killing field,” he warned. “No matter how strong our convictions, we must never descend into violence.”—BBC
