Bullets over ballots: America’s tragic tradition of assassination attempts
This is an era of disbelief, a time when trust has been lost and myths and conspiracies seem the only answers.
There has always been a strong pattern of doubt in this country. It’s not just Missouri where people demand to be shown proof. Even then, many will refuse to accept reality if it doesn’t match their view.
Take this latest assassination attempt against President Trump. Initial reports had barely started to pop up Saturday night when numerous people expressed their disbelief.
Hoax! Staged! Fake!
They were sure Trump had created and managed the attempt, apparently to bolster his poll numbers, or to avoid having to face the assembled journalists at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, or to provide him a stronger argument for the massive ballroom he wants to build and attach to the White House.
Pick your conspiracy. There are others floating around as well.
My first thought was different. As is often the case, it was tied to history, and the United States has a long record of people trying to kill a president.
Four have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901 and John F. Kennedy in 1963. All were shot and killed by a deranged gunman, unless you buy into one of the hundreds of theories floating around about those highest-profile murders.
Lincoln’s murder was part of a real plot to kill several government officials, and Secretary of State William Seward was seriously wounded. The man assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson got drunk and missed his assignment.
Lincoln had survived four earlier attempts to kill him. One plot was uncovered as he arrived in Washington for his inauguration in 1861. The 16th president entered the capital via a secret route.
In August 1864, while alone on a night ride — yes, security was hardly a priority — a rifle shot missed Honest Abe’s skull by inches. He told a close friend about having his trademark stovepipe hat shot off his head, but asked him to keep it quiet.
There used to be a political legend about the curse of presidents elected in years ending with a 0. From 1840 to 1960, all died of them died in office — William Henry Harrison, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Warren Harding, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy.
Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, and early in his first term, he almost became the latest on that list. Another in a sorry line of deluded or outright crazy gunman — John Hinckley — shot Reagan as he exited the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981.
Reagan was hit in the side and nearly died. White House Press Secretary James Brady was struck in the head by a bullet, Metropolitan Police Officer Thomas Delahanty was hit in the neck and Special Agent Tim McCarthy took a bullet in the abdomen.
Reagan showed his trademark sense of humor, telling his wife Nancy that he “forgot to duck,” and asking his surgeons if they were all Republicans. It was a light note in yet another dark moment of our history.
There have been so many attempts to kill presidents. FDR was shot at 17 days before taking office in 1933. Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who was standing next to him, was killed, and four others injured.
Harry S. Truman witnessed two Puerto Ricans who wanted the island granted independence have a shoot-out with White House police officers on Nov. 1, 1950. An officer was killed, as was one of the attackers.
President Kennedy survived a bizarre attempt. A man with a vehicle loaded with dynamite intended to crash into JFK’s car on Dec. 11, 1960. Seeing Jackie and Caroline Kennedy wish the president-elect goodbye made him postpone the attack. He was arrested four days later.
There was no such piece of good fortune on Nov. 22, 1963.
Richard Nixon was twice threatened by would-be assassins, including one when a man hijacked a plane with the intent to crash it into the White House. It’s one of the most bizarre attempts, but it’s faded into obscurity, even though Sean Penn starred in a movie based on the incident.
Gerald Ford came close to being the fifth president shot dead when a pair of women pointed guns at him in September 1975. Thankfully, in the first case, no shots were fired, and in the second, a heroic bystander grabbed Sarah Jane Moore’s arm and the shot narrowly missed the president. Moore served 32 years in prison before she was released; she died on Sept. 24.
This list could go on and on. American political history has often been shaped by the bullet instead of the ballot.
It’s not just presidents. The assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy and so many others are horrid examples of that. Public figures are often targeted by those who disagree with them.
There were threats against just about every president. Some made the news, albeit briefly. Others were kept quiet or slipped past the media and public.
Bill Clinton was the target of five murder plots. Barack Obama was the focus of 13, many by white supremacists and people who hated the first Black president and all he stood for as our country’s leader.
The three assassins who tried to kill Trump were just part of the threat. In total, there have been 17 plots to murder this president. Of course, the people who don’t believe what happened Saturday night was real won’t accept that, either.
The shooting at a July 13, 2024, rally near Butler, Penn., is particularly difficult for people who despise Trump to accept. They don’t believe he was wounded and are convinced the bullet that nicked his right ear was faked.
They are sure it was all an act to help him recapture the White House. Apparently that meant he was willing to kill Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief, and critically wound two other men in the audience that day.
The death of the alleged shooter, Thomas Crooks, 20, also was part of the scheme, the doubters think.
It’s incredible that they won’t accept that tragic event, but their hatred — there is no other appropriate term — for Trump won’t allow them to do so. It’s partly his fault. Trump’s blatant disregard for the truth on so many occasions fuels their distrust.
The arrest of a man who wanted to kill Trump at a golf course in Florida on Sept. 15, 2024, was further proof of the angry, deadly mood in the nation. Ryan Wesley Routh didn’t even fire a shot, but earned himself a life sentence in a federal prison.
Saturday’s attempt to kill Trump and many of his top aides at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner — at the same hotel where Reagan was shot — was all too real, but millions refuse to believe that. That became clear as the story unfolded. People were divided on largely partisan lines if it had actually occurred as we were being told.
Reality? Depends on who is telling the tale.
What spurred Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old California teacher, to think he could commit mass murder at a heavily secured event, is a mystery. The fact that he got even somewhat close to achieving his twisted goal is alarming.
One thing we know for sure: It won’t be the last. That is something everyone can believe.
Fourth-generation South Dakotan Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states for four decades. He has contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The London Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Do not republish without permission.
Photo: Cole Thomas Allen, public domain, wikimedia commons
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