The Patriot Post® · Assassination Attempt: An Uncanny Repetition of Political History

Like all of America, I was shocked to hear about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump — although, unfortunately, not surprised. Not since George W. Bush have we seen such hateful, vicious rhetoric aimed at a Republican candidate: “an existential threat to democracy,” “a dictator,” “a fascist,” and a modern “Adolph Hitler,” according to outlets like The New Republic and Vox.

Through a miracle, Donald Trump turned his head a split second before he was shot, saving his life, although two other spectators, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, were critically wounded, and firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed. Our sympathy and compassion extend to their grieving families, and we pray for the swift recovery of Dutch and Copenhaver. As Trump said in an interview, the chances of him turning his head at just the right angle at just the right time “are probably one-tenth of 1%, so I’m not supposed to be here.”

The attempted assassination of Trump and the miracle of his survival bear an uncanny resemblance to the last time someone tried to assassinate a former president who was running for another term. It happened in the city where Donald Trump is going to be nominated by the Republican Party and where he was headed on Sunday: Milwaukee.

On October 14, 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt was in the city as the nominee of the Progressive Party seeking a third term — before the 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, limited a president to two terms. Roosevelt had no Secret Service protection. Although Congress authorized protection for the president by the Secret Service in 1901 after the assassination of William McKinley, no such protection was provided to former presidents like Roosevelt until 1962, although even then it was only for a limited amount of time.

As Nathaniel Miller recounts in his 1992 biography, “Theodore Roosevelt — A Life,” Roosevelt had just left the Gilpatrick Hotel, now the site of the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee. He was standing in an open car on his way to a rally to give his speech when he was shot in the chest by a man in the crowd, John Schrank, “an anti-third term fanatic,” from only 30 feet away. Roosevelt later said it felt like he had been kicked by a mule but like Donald Trump, he was saved by a seeming miracle.

The bullet “tore through his overcoat, steel spectacles case, and the folded [50-page] manuscript of his speech,” which were squeezed into his right jacket pocket, before lodging in his ribs. Despite the penetrating wound and a bloody shirt, Roosevelt insisted on being taken to the rally and giving his speech before being treated. He held up his speech to the crowd with its bullet hole torn through the middle and told them that the lengthy manuscript probably helped save him from having the bullet go into his heart.

Miller relates that TR spoke for an hour and a half, “waving off repeated appeals for him to stop and seek medical treatment.” Pointing to the bullet hole in his manuscript, Roosevelt told the crowd that “it takes more than that to kill a bull moose.”

Trump appeared just as defiant after he was shot, including raising his fist in defiance of the shooter and insisting that he walk off the stage, not be carried off. Byron York of the Washington Examiner, who talked to Trump on his plane, says that after watching the video, it appeared to him that Trump “actually wanted to return to the microphone to continue speaking.” Trump told York, “I wanted to keep speaking, but I just got shot,” adding: “It was a very surreal experience, and you never know what you’re going to do until a thing like that happens.”

In his prime-time speech to the nation on Sunday, President Joe Biden said that “we must never descend into violence” and that there is “no place in America for this kind of violence.” He urged Americans to “lower the temperature” in the political battles in which we are engaged.

Biden is certainly right. But he and his political and media allies should look in the mirror. It’s one thing to have a serious, vigorous debate about substantive political, cultural, and social issues and outline your disagreement with what others think about those issues. But it is the height of irresponsibility to call your opponents evil, existential threats to democracy, fascists, or a new Hitler or budding dictator simply because they disagree with you. Those are the kinds of reprehensible personal attacks and reckless, inflammatory rhetoric that Biden is now suddenly preaching against.

He needs to get his own house in order before he tells the rest of us to behave.

Republished from The Heritage Foundation.