People are gabbing about this without any idea of the consequences, so why shouldn’t I be one of them.
There seems to be an automatic assumption that the near miss helps Trump. I am not so sure. It certainly amps up his supporters, but they were solid for him anyway. It’s not obvious to me that independent voters or those who dislike Biden take this as a good reason to switch.
There was the case of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. It came at a time when he was slumping in popularity. The wound, unlike this one, did put his life in serious danger. He had to be hospitalized, and he milked it for all it was worth. The media played along slavishly, relaying his every heroic, jocular phrase in real time. The attempt did help him, even if it nearly killed him.
The theories of this being staged are idiotic. Two or three inches difference and DT would be dead as a doornail. Nobody in his right mind would cook up a plot like this. The best available babble about conspiracy came from the ultra-right, from the likes of Alex Jones.
The most puzzling thing about this comes from a BBC interview with one of the witnesses. Law enforcement on station appear to have totally dropped the ball, as spectators pointed out the shooter — a man with a rifle on a roof with a line of sight to Trump on the stage. The police did nothing until he started shooting. They had several minutes to react, stop him, get Trump off the stage.
I know a Trump voter who assured me several months ago that those who voted for him in the past would not do so again, out of an aversion to ongoing political chaos. Something like that might be in the offing.
It’s only a day later. So far the identity of the shooter offers little grist for either side’s ranting. The only tidbit circulating is a possible donation he made to a bogus Democratic fund-raising website, years ago. Ryan Grim has the details on that.