Donald Trump arriving in Las Vegas this weekend. AP.
A 2nd assassin has made an attempt on Donald Trump's life, this time at his gulf club in West Palm Beach Florida. AP. The former President was golfing and the assassin, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, had a scoped rifle, supposedly an AK variant, and a GoPro video camera. The Secret Service saw a rifle poking through a fence line and fired at the assassin, driving him away. He was picked up in a neighboring county after a good Samaritan identified his vehicle. This is, obviously, the 2nd major attempt on Trump's life, with the first one coming in Pennsylvania where Trump had his ear grazed. It is unclear what the motivation for the attack was. The suspect was captured alive.
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My Comment:
I don't think too many people are surprised with this, after the shooting in Pennsylvania, which Trump barely survived, I think everyone expected that someone would attempt this again. Given the huge threats against Trump both domestically and internationally, it was only a matter of time before it happened again.
Thankfully the Secret Service was able to stop it this time. They were able to engage with the shooter before he even got a shot off. It doesn't reflect well that he was able to jump into an SUV and get away from the scene of the crime. I also think that if the shooter had been smart enough to not poke his rifle through the fenceline, he might have been undetected when Trump got into range. Thankfully, he was an idiot and the Secret Service was able to stop him.
As for the attacker, it is good that he was taken alive. This time we should be able to determine his motive a lot easier and it will be harder for the powers that be to actually cover it up. Indeed, there are reports that this is the shooters X/Twitter account, though that hasn't been verified. If it is legit then it's clear that it was Trump's Ukraine policy that he was upset with, but time will tell if that was just an unfortunate person that both looks like the assassin and has the same name.
Either way we are in unprecedented times. This is the 2nd attack in less than a season on the leading presidential candidate that has a very good chance of winning. It seems clear that Trump might not make it to election day. And if Trump does get killed? I think we end up in the American version of the troubles, with tit for tat attacks targeting politicians, celebrities, or perhaps ordinary civilians on both sides.
Without knowing the motivations for the shooter it's unclear who should bear the blame for this attack. What is clear is that the rhetoric around Donald Trump is out of control. The Democrats talk about Trump in apocalyptic terms, saying that he is a threat to democracy and that if he gets in there will be no further elections, and other such nonsense. The truth of the matter is that Trump was a fairly moderate president with fairly moderate policies and would certainly be a lot less dangerous than a Harris administration, but even then there is nothing that would justify violence in the 2024 election. But if Trump gets killed, then pretty much everything is on the table.
Finally, I honestly don't know how much more of this I can take. The country is a very dark place right now and it's hard to keep up with all the violence and threats. This has been, by far, the craziest presidential season I have ever seen. Between the 1st assassination attempt, the lawfare against Trump, Biden collapsing and then dropping out, the anointment of Kamala Harris and now the 2nd assassination, is it any wonder that I just want this all to be over with?
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