I tuned into C-SPAN last Saturday to watch the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, hoping to hear President Trump say something conciliatory to the hundreds of reporters in the audience. As we know, President Trump never got the opportunity to speak Saturday after a gunman attempted to enter the Hilton Hotel’s ballroom with a shotgun and other weapons.
Fortunately, the Secret Service stopped the gunman before he had a chance to discharge his gun. We should all be grateful for the Secret Service’s quick response and competency and thank heaven for it.
The incident occurred right after dinner was served. I was watching as more than a dozen men in dark suits suddenly appeared on screen, rushing to the stage, sometimes walking on chairs. On stage, another group of agents started to rush the President, First Lady, and others out of harm’s way. It was clear that yet another assassination attempt on President Trump had occurred.
Within minutes, it seemed clear that the danger was over (easier for me to think from the comfort of my sofa than for the people inside the ballroom). For a few minutes, it was unclear whether the dinner would continue, meaning that President Trump would give his speech. The Secret Service said no, and the evening’s events were over.
As I watched the initial reports, consisting of information and speculation about the alleged would-be assassin, I thought about the dozens of times I have heard opponents of President Trump wish harm on him since he returned to the White House. None of these comments were serious, but more along the lines, of “I wish he’d get sick and resign.”
Unfortunately, we’re hearing people casually comment about harm to the President and other politicians more frequently. in these troubled days, too many people have gotten comfortable with talking about violence as if it were not a threat to democracy. President Trump, for example, called for hecklers at speeches during his first campaign for president to be “roughed up” and has suggested that Senator Mark Kelly be executed for treason.
I have also heard otherwise civilized people comment that persons shot by ICE agents “should have stayed home” or, in one case, “asked for it.”
Simply put, calls for violence, or acceptance of it, have become common. And the right and the left, as well as those of us who see ourselves “in the middle” are guilty. I recall hearing Republicans, and at least one Democrat, wish that President Biden would “just die” after he announced he was running for re-election in 2024.
Hopefully, the shock of Saturday’s attempted assassination will prompt all of us to tone down the rhetoric. And hopefully all of us, when we hear someone stupidly express a wish that a politician or pollical leader gets shot, “catch cancer,” or is hit by a bus, will react and tell the speaker to stifle such comments. Discussions of political violence need to become completely unacceptable.
In coming months, our political debates will become hotter. Republicans, for now, are losing support and will get ugly as the prospects of their losing their Congressional majorities grow. Democrats will also get heated, stepping up their condemnation of “fascists” and “NAZIs” in reaction to Republicans calling them lunatics, communists, and deranged.
Hot political debates—ones characterized by the absence of any civil discourse–are no service to democracy. They are an obstacle. And hot political debates, especially ones that include unhinged mud-slinging against political opponents and enemies, are the types of debates that prompt people like Cole Thomas Allen to take a train across America with luggage filled with guns and knives, check into the Washington Hilton, and be prepared to be shot in exchange for the opportunity to kill the elected President of the United States.
