We Shoot Presidents

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | July 20, 2024

Statistically, it is the most dangerous job in the world.

We’ve had 45 presidents, and five have been shot at and missed, three have been shot at and hit (including two former presidents seeking another term), and four have been shot and killed. That is an amazingly violent record.

In 1835, a deranged man tried shooting Andrew Jackson outside the Capitol building, but his pistol jammed. It was the first attempted presidential assassination. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt was shot at and missed, but Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who was standing beside FDR, was killed. In 1950, Harry Truman was shot at by Puerto Rican nationalists, and, in 1975, poor Gerald Ford was shot at twice barely two weeks apart, once by a Charles Manson follower. In 2011, a man took multiple shots at the White House, but the Obamas were not in residence. Those were the misses.

In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, running to regain the White House he had lost, was shot while on his way to Buffalo to deliver a speech. He barely even stopped, continuing on and delivering his speech. He never had the bullet removed and later credited his folded up 50-page speech for taking the brunt of the impact. In 1981, while president, Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously wounded. And Donald Trump was shot while a candidate. Those were the survivors. (In 1972, George Wallace was shot and paralyzed while a presidential candidate.)

Four of our presidents were not so fortunate. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, James Garfield was shot twice in 1888 and lingered for 80 days before dying, William McKinley was killed in 1901, and John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in 1963.

President Biden was wrong. When commenting on the Trump shooting, he said, “This is not who we are.” This is exactly who we are, a country awash in guns with little clue of how to deal with the combination of guns, mental illness, and people who want to shoot the president.

We have a horrible record of violence directed at our leaders, nearly 29 percent of whom have been shot or shot at. (If the presidency was a separate crime category, the per capita violent crime rate per 100,000 would be a stupefying 28,800!)

Those now wishing Trump an even worse result than just being wounded should know better. It is never, ever a good day when someone tries to gun down a political leader. It serves no purpose, furthers no goal or ideal, solves no problem, potentially destabilizes our government, and helps absolutely nothing.

Given the chance to unify a troubled country, cynical Republicans quickly blamed Joe Biden and his allegedly “violent” rhetoric. This after eight solid years of virulently aggressive rhetoric from Trump.

You might remember back in 2016 when Trump said he might pay the legal fees of a rally attendee who had punched a protester. He frequently tells his supporters they must “fight like hell.”

When violence erupted at a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville that resulted in multiple injuries and one death, he said there were “fine people” in attendance. He’s pledged to pardon at least some of those who violently demonstrated on Jan. 6 and injured 174 members of law enforcement. He’s referred to immigrants, legal and otherwise, as “vermin,” “animals,” “rapists,” and “murderers.” He has, more than once, equated pretty much all Muslims to terrorists.

Trump has also claimed he will be his supporters’ “retribution” and has said some Republicans who voted to impeach him should be tried for treason. Violent imagery is a normal part of his rally speeches because it stirs the crowds, and he thrives on those reactions. But it’s a clarion call to some already on the razor’s edge of stability.

An ABC News investigation found 54 cases in which defendants accused of violent acts have referenced Trump rhetoric as part of their defense, including several from Jan. 6 who claimed they were told by “their president” to occupy Congress and “stop the steal.” (They could find no such instances of someone claiming Biden rhetoric had spurred their violence. And the “Trump made me do it” defense has proven unsuccessful, so far.)

It’s more than likely the Trump shooter, like the other presidential assassins and assassin-wannabes, was less interested in politics and ideology and was reacting to something else we might never know. Another citizen with easy access to a weapon he shouldn’t have used on the rest of us.

Sorry, Joe, but when it comes to the presidency this is exactly who we are—armed, deranged, and incredibly dangerous.