A bad weekend for democracy
By: Miguel Hernandez
(Escucha el audio en Español y Mixteco, variante de Guadalupe Nundaca, 6 min)
Last weekend will go down in history in regard to political violence in the United States. Former United States President Donald J. Trump was the target of an assassination attempt that left one dead and two injured, and the former president injured. Several videos emerged on social media Saturday afternoon showing the 78-year-old former president behind the podium, as sounds of fireworks began to echo and the former president quickly reached for his ear and then began dripping blood. With the public in panic, members of the Secret Service surrounded the former president, who raised a fist in the air and shouted “Fight.” The incident took place in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The shooter was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who shot the former president from a neighboring roof and was later shot dead by Secret Service agents. The next day, President Joe Biden gave a speech at the White House and denounced the acts of violence committed against Trump, saying: “There is no place in America for this type of violence or any violence. “Under no circumstances without exception, we cannot allow this violence to become normal.”
Biden went on to say, “Here in America we need to get out of our “silos where we only listen to those we agree with, where misinformation abounds, where foreign actors fan the flames of our division to shape consistent outcomes. with their interests, not ours.”
FBI officials also said Sunday that they were investigating sniper Crooks and found no evidence that he spread or promoted violence or discussed his political views online.
The Associated Press went on to state that “Crooks was a registered Republican voter in Pennsylvania, but federal campaign finance reports also show he donated $15 to a progressive political action committee on Jan. 20, 2021, the day Biden was inaugurated. The charge”.
This attempt on Donald Trump was considered one of the most serious assassination attempts on a former president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. The incident further worried community members about the rise in political violence in the last few years. Some of the most recent acts of political violence range from the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in 2021 to the assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, where he was attacked with a hammer in his San Francisco home.
One community member who has been largely following the election mentioned that he feels like there is a huge political divide right now. He also mentions that since the beginning of Trump’s presidency, more people have begun to use violence to defend their political opinions, pointing to the attack on the Capitol on January 6. He sees this attempt against Donald Trump as a result of a divided country and fears that things could get much worse.