Quote of the Day

My first thought on hearing about the attempted shooting of Donald Trump at a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania was “I hope to god he’s okay.” I thought this for the usual reasons we human beings hope that other humans are safe from harm. But I had another reason in the case of Donald Trump.

Trump has shaped his campaign around his own paranoid martyrdom. I didn’t want anything to add fuel to his dangerous message.

It would be unseemly to speak ill of a man who could have lost his life today, yet I am compelled to remind you of the constant undercurrent of violence in Trump’s campaign message to his followers. He talks of an America divided between Trump supporters and “enemies within” who are seeking to destroy both Trump and his followers. . . . After Saturday’s attempt on his life, expect more of the same paranoid martyrdom from Trump.

. . . I have much more to say about all this. For now, though, please join me in doing everything possible to lower the hostility and anger now pervading American politics. And let us pray that Trump, Biden, and everyone running for political office and every American engaged in politics remains safe from harm.

– Robert Reich
Excerpted from “My First Thought
When I Heard Trump Had Been Shot
– And the Ones That Followed”
Common Dreams
July 14, 2024

Related Off-site Links:
Trump Injured But ‘Fine’ After Attempted Assassination at Rally, Shooter and One Attendee Are Dead – Jill Colvin, Julie Carr Smyth, Colleen Long, Eric Tucker, Michael Balsamo, and Michelle L. Price (AP News, July 14, 2024).
Citing His Recent Comments, Republicans Blame Joe Biden for Donald Trump Rally Shooting – Bailey Schulz (USA Today, July 13, 2024).
Progressives Condemn GOP Attempts to Blame Biden for Trump Rally Shooting – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, July 14, 2024).
FBI Identifies Trump Rally Shooter as 20-Year-Old Thomas Matthew Crooks – Jessie Yeung (CNN, July 14, 2024).
Suspect in Trump Assassination Attempt Had Registered as Republican But Motive Unknown – Pierre Thomas, Olivia Rubin, Peter Charalambous, Luke Barr, and Jack Date (ABC News, July 14, 2024).
Biden Orders a Security Review After the Assassination Attempt on Trump – NPR News (July 14, 2024).
World Leaders React to Attempt on Trump’s Life at Pennsylvania Rally – Brady Dale (Axios, July 14, 2024).
Read the Letter from Melania Trump Responding to Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump – CNN (July 14, 2024).
Conspiracy Theories Surge Following the Assassination Attempt on Trump – Huo Jingnan, Lisa Hagen, and Odette Yousef (NPR News, July 14, 2024).
Trump Headed to Republican Convention After Surviving Assassination Attempt – Nathan Layne, Soren Larson, and Gabriella Borter (Reuters, July 14, 2024).

UPDATES: Jeff Sharlet on Trump Assassination Attempt, Authoritarian Violence, and Project 2025 – Democracy Now! (July 15, 2024).
Trump Picks Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance to Be His Running Mate – NPR News (July 15, 2024).
J.D. Vance – Who Once Called Trump “America’s Hitler” – Tapped for VP – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, July 15, 2024).
“He’s a Fake”: Robert Kuttner on How J.D. Vance Disguises His Anti-Worker Views as Economic Populism – Democracy Now! (July 16, 2024).
Get Your Assassination Merch Here! – Pierre Tristam (Common Dreams, July 16, 2024).
Trump Got Shot With an AR-15. Don’t Expect His Party to Support a Ban – Stephanie Mencimer (Mother Jones, July 16, 2024).
Assassination Attempt Does Not Change Fact That Trump Is a Threat to Democracy – Julie Hollar (Common Dreams, July 17, 2024).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Will We Let Fascism Come to America?
• Chauncey Devega on the Ongoing Danger of the Trump Cult
• Donald Trump’s Open and Shameless Criminality
• Insurrection at the United States Capitol
• Trump’s Legacy
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• Progressive Perspectives on Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee, Amy Coney Barrett
• “We Have an Emergency On Our Hands”: Marianne Williamson On the “Freefall” of American Democracy
• “Fascism Is Upon Us”
• Laura Bassett: Quote of the Day – October 5, 2018
• Insightful Perspectives on the Kavanaugh/Ford Hearing
• Adam Serwer: Quote of the Day – May 23, 2018
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying “No” to Donald Trump and His Fascist Agenda
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump as President of the United States
• Progressive Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump

Image: The front page of the Minneapolis Star Tribune – Sunday, July 14, 2024. Notes Wikipedia about the photograph used in the Star Tribune’s coverage of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump:

An image of a bloodied Trump pumping his fist in the air was taken by Evan Vucci of the Associated Press and spread on social media shortly afterwards. The photo observed subsequent, widespread usage in posts by his most prominent allies, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Politico said some used it as “an opportunity to tout conspiracy theories and stoke political tensions.” Benjamin Wallace-Wells of The New Yorker said that “It is already the indelible image of our era of political crisis and conflict.” He analyzed that “some of the elements in Vucci’s image are familiar from the countless others of Trump” and concluded that “It is an image that captures him as he would like to be seen, so perfectly, in fact, that it may outlast all the rest.” Business Insider echoed those sentiments, assessing that it had “become the most iconic image of his reelection among Republicans.”