Trump rally shooting the latest in history of political violence

once again our our coverage does continue here and I want to bring in mark up grve who's a presidential historian joining us now and Mark I think it's worth picking up where where Nathan this witness left off talking about just the historic nature of this election cycle unprecedented in so many different ways this was a moment that many Law Enforcement Officers had feared could happen and here we are now an investigation into the potential assassination attempt of a presidential candidate and former president put this into historical perspective for us when was the last time we've seen something quite like this well first of all we I think it's a reflection of how divided and dangerous our political climate is currently in Republican Democrat or independent we are all Americans and this kind of political violence should have no place in American life but unfortunately as you are alluding to it has in our past in our recent past uh in 20 17 we had the uh the shooting at a a softball practice outside of Washington and Representative Steve scales was hit um Gabby gords uh was was hit in an assassination attempt in Tucson in 2011 Paul Pelosi the husband of Nancy Pelosi was attacked at the Pelosi home in 2022 and of course we've seen assassination attempts and assassinations of presidents throughout our history most recently the assassination attempt on President Reagan's life in 1981 just 69 days into his presidency we've also seen the assassination attempt of a of a u a contender for the presidency George Wallace the governor of uh of Alabama uh was gunned down in Maryland when he was campaigning as an independent for the presidency in 1972 so unfortunately we have a long history of political violence which as President Biden suggested to should have no place in America and Mark what about the as we're looking at all these horrible images you know people are trying to look for for some message of Hope somewhere right there there's you know multiple uh politicians on all sides of the aisle coming out condemning the violence saying something like this should never happen but when these events have happened in the past what typically happens across the country in terms of a response in terms of a recovery um does peace often follow or or not I think in the immediate days there is a call for peace and there's a reflection of of comedy and stability and empathy but I think then it then we get into debates about whether uh there should be gun control or or gun reform in our country and then the political divisions once again are swn if you look back at the assassination attempt on President Reagan's life the America came together and you saw approval ratings for president reag sore in the wake of that it it actually helped President Reagan politically and and I think into some degree Americans United when they saw an assassination attempt uh of their of their president so I think it's a mixed bag we saw with the Paul Pelosi attack that I mentioned which is the most recent of those that I enumerated we saw more division we s saw more ugliness uh from particularly from the Republicans after that really mocking what had happened to Paul Pelosi so a mixed bag with and again I think a reflection of a very divided time in American Life a mixed bag and and certainly a test that this country will face in the days and weeks to come Mark up Grove thank you so much for your perspective we really appreciate it

Channel: ABC News

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Keywords: abc, abcnl, assassination, attempt, historian, news, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-111921716, political, presidential, rally, shooting, trump, violence

Id: 89RcN2uFCMQ

Length: 3min 47sec (227 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 14 2024