US Politics

Subterms

    More stories

    • 88 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Who is JD Vance, Trump’s vice-presidential pick?

      by

      Donald Trump has selected JD Vance, the junior senator of Ohio and author of the bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy, as his running mate in the presidential race.The announcement, made on Monday during the first day of the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, marked the culmination of Vance’s stunning political evolution over the past several years.Vance was once an outspoken critic of Trump, mocking him as “America’s Hitler” and “a total fraud”. But Vance came to embrace Trump as he sought a Senate seat in 2022, and he eventually won the former president’s endorsement in a crowded Republican primary.“He’s the guy that said some bad shit about me,” Trump said at a rally in 2022. “If I went by that standard, I don’t think I would have ever endorsed anybody in the country.”Vance echoed that assessment, telling rally-goers, “The president is right. I wasn’t always nice, but the simple fact is, he’s the best president of my lifetime, and he revealed the corruption in this country like nobody else.”Vance first rose to fame in 2016 following the publication of Hillbilly Elegy, which detailed his upbringing in south-western Ohio and his later ascension to Yale law school. The book was later adapted into a 2020 film starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams.In the months following Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election, Vance’s account of his family’s experiences with poverty and drug addiction came to be viewed by some critics as a revealing portrait into the lives of Americans who helped determine the outcome of the election.“It dropped into a national shouting match that has pitted a hazily defined entity called ‘the white working class’ against an equally hazy ‘coastal elite’ as the Sunni and Shia of the American political scene,” the author Hari Kunzru wrote for the Guardian in 2016. “Readers looking to understand the class fault lines within white America will be enlightened by Vance’s narrative of class mobility, but as a guide to the new political terrain Hillbilly Elegy is uneven, and frustratingly silent about the writer’s real commitments.”View image in fullscreenOnce Trump took office, Vance became an oft-cited conservative voice frequently called upon to explain the president’s political brand to baffled cable news viewers. Vance was initially viewed as an anti-Trump Republican, as a CNN analysis found that he liked many tweets that were harshly critical of the then president in 2016 and 2017.But that tone sharply shifted once Vance entered the 2022 Senate race, as he shaped his campaign around hard-right proposals like finishing the wall along the US-Mexico border. During the election, Democrats accused Vance of endorsing the racist conspiracy theory known as “Great Replacement” after he suggested the opposing party was attempting to “transform the electorate” amid an immigrant “invasion”.“You’re talking about a shift in the democratic makeup of this country that would mean we never win, meaning Republicans would never win a national election in this country ever again,” Vance told voters in 2022.Vance’s hard-right tactics were ultimately successful, as he defeated Democrat representative Tim Ryan by six points in the election. In the year and a half since he joined Congress, Vance has served as one of Trump’s most vocal and aggressive supporters on Capitol Hill. After the assassination attempt against Trump on Saturday, Vance accused Joe Biden of inciting the attack.“Today is not just some isolated incident,” Vance posted on X. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”As Trump’s running mate, Vance will now have a much larger platform to spread that message. More

    • 163 Shares179 Views

      in US Politics

      Judge who dismissed Trump criminal case is ‘future supreme court justice’, Gaetz says

      by

      The far-right Florida Republican Matt Gaetz has hailed Aileen Cannon – the judge who dismissed the classified documents case against Donald Trump – as a “future supreme court justice”.“Future supreme court justice Cannon,” Gaetz posted Monday to social media, with a picture of the Florida jurist.In four years as president, Trump nominated three hardline rightwingers to the supreme court. Tilted 6-3 to the right, the court has delighted conservatives and enraged liberals by handing down epochal rulings against abortion, restricting gun control, granting presidential immunity and more.Trump nominated Cannon to the federal bench in November 2020, at the end of his time in power.Since leaving the White House, he has faced unprecedented legal jeopardy.In civil cases, Trump was fined millions for business fraud and defamation arising from a rape allegation a judge called “substantially true”.In criminal cases, Trump was convicted in New York on 34 criminal charges related to hush-money payments. He still faces four federal charges and 10 Georgia state charges arising from his attempt to overturn the 2020 election.Cannon was randomly assigned to Trump’s federal documents case, in which the special counsel Jack Smith brought 40 charges related to improper retention of classified information.The judge was widely criticised for perceived partiality to Trump, as she repeatedly delayed proceedings. Ultimately, on Monday, she threw the case out, ruling Smith improperly appointed.The decision seemed destined for appeal. The case could also potentially be refiled and handed to a different judge. Nonetheless, Trump supporters celebrated.Gaetz tweeted: “CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE DISMISSED!!!!!!”His decision to call Cannon a “future supreme court justice” prompted angry responses. Ally Sammarco, an anti-Trump strategist and commentator, asked: “Are you admitting to a quid pro quo”?skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSuch upset was familiar. A dedicated provocateur who describes himself as a “Florida man, built for battle”, the 42-year-old Gaetz has been stirring trouble in Congress since 2017.Last year, he made history by leading the first removal of a House speaker by members of his own party.That Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has accused Gaetz of seeking revenge for ongoing investigations of alleged sexual and personal misconduct.On Monday, the Republican national convention began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Gaetz is due to address the event this week.But he is also widely held to be preparing a run for Florida governor and on Monday he was due to appear in his home state, staging a “Never Surrender Rally” at a Baptist church in Pensacola.According to promotional materials, the event would offer Floridians a chance “to show your support and pray for president Donald J Trump”, after he survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania on Saturday. More

    • 200 Shares139 Views

      in US Politics

      How being shot might affect Donald Trump’s mental health – and that of millions of others

      by

      After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at his Pennsylvania campaign rally, there is much speculation about how this will affect the 2024 US election. However, no one is yet asking how these events may affect Trump himself.

      Many appear to assume that because Trump walked away with seemingly minor injuries, he will continue with business as usual. For anyone who thought society now understood the potential mental health effects of trauma, this assumption is both disappointing and troubling.

      Trump may not experience any psychological effects, but given that he could soon be re-elected, the potential effect of these events on his mental health — whether negligible, negative or positive — cannot be ignored.

      These tragic events also offer an opportunity for both society and Trump to reignite the wider conversation about the effect and management of trauma and to spur new action.

      Trump joins tens of thousands of Americans treated for non-fatal gunshot wounds each year. Such experiences can shatter people’s assumptions that they are living in a safe, understandable and controllable world, leaving them feeling unworthy, unsafe and unsure.

      As a result, survivors of non-fatal gun violence face increased risks of depression, anxiety, substance use and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD can feel overwhelming. People may re-experience the event through flashbacks or nightmares. They may also have palpitations, sweating or breathlessness when reminded of the event.

      PTSD also often sees people trying to avoid reminders of the event, losing interest in activities, and feeling numb, irritable and jumpy. They may be constantly watching out for threats, have difficulty concentrating, have angry outbursts and experience overwhelming emotions.

      Indeed, many trauma survivors struggle with their emotions. The person may not understand or be aware of their emotions, find it hard to control them, and struggle to stay focused and avoid impulsive actions. Given Trump’s previously reported “uncontrollable” experiences of anger, his emotions and ability to manage them will come under scrutiny.

      Conversely, some trauma survivors experience post-traumatic growth. They may develop greater empathy, stronger relationships, deeper spirituality and find new meaning in life. After being shot in 1981, the then president Ronald Reagan’s trauma seemed to deepen his sense of empathy and humility. He felt God had spared him for a reason, spurring him to reduce nuclear tensions with the Soviet Union.

      Being shot led to some positive changes in Ronald Reagan.
      Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

      Reactions to trauma vary widely. The outcome is influenced by a person’s personality and biology. The meaning people make of their experience and the available social support also play a key role.

      Being an extrovert, as Trump is argued to be, is linked to a better ability to adapt to stress and fewer PTSD symptoms. However, other personality traits, including low agreeableness, low conscientiousness and low emotional stability, also attributed to Trump, are associated with greater levels of PTSD. Finally, high levels of narcissism, as Trump is said to display, also encourage the development of PTSD and can cause people to react to even limited threats with aggression.

      How someone makes sense of their trauma can be crucial for its consequences. Feeling shame or anger with others after experiencing violent crime is associated with a greater likelihood of developing PTSD.

      If the person can make sense of why the event happened or can draw something positive from it, better outcomes can be expected. The meaning Reagan made of his shooting was that it was a sign of divine protection and destiny, which appears to have reinforced his commitment to his presidential duties.

      Social support can be vital to recovery from trauma. Having high levels of social support before experiencing a trauma makes one less likely to develop PTSD. And high levels of social support after PTSD help with recovery.

      Such support can come from family, friends or a community, who can help by providing safety and belonging, helping them make sense of events, helping with problem-solving and discouraging risky behaviour. Trump’s family and team will be essential in helping him process this weekend’s events.

      On which note, the ability of trauma to powerfully ripple out from an event also needs to be recognised. Those at Trump’s rally, including his security detail, as well as his friends, family and the wider public who witnessed the event on TV, all need to be aware of potential signs of trauma in themselves and each other.

      Opportunity for positive effects

      Thankfully, there is now a wide range of psychological therapies to help people with PTSD. Many mental health charities also offer suggestions and support. Yet there remains much to be done, including a need for more mental health staff training in trauma-informed care and greater government support and funding for services.

      Recent events offer Trump an opportunity to positively drive such change. He could help destigmatise the struggles that many survivors of trauma experience. This could include busting the myth that it is a sign of weakness to seek support and help. Conversely, were Trump to make any disparaging remarks about survivors of trauma, akin to those he is alleged to have made before about wounded veterans, this would be profoundly damaging.

      Trump could also help dispel the lingering idea that PTSD is primarily linked to guns, combat and warfare. He could highlight how around half of rape survivors experience PTSD. Indeed, as psychologist Judith Herman points out, “the most common PTSDs are those not of men in war, but of women in civilian life”.

      Trump could also help society better understand non-fatal gun violence and enhance the provision of effective care for both survivors and their families.

      As the world watches, the effect of these events on Trump, both personally and politically, will unfold. Everyone is deserving of compassion. Effectively dealing with the psychological effects of trauma will be crucial, not just for Trump but for society as a whole. More

    • 113 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      Donald Trump and the gathering darkness threatening US politics

      by

      In America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box … not with bullets. The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin.

      So said the US president, Joe Biden, in an Oval Office address to the nation the day after the attempted assassination of his rival in November’s presidential election.

      US president, Joe Biden, calls on America to ‘lower the temperature’ in US politics.

      The shockwaves of Trump surviving an effort to kill him at a campaign event in Pennsylvania on July 13 are still being felt across the United States and around the world. The FBI stated it has picked up on increasing levels of violent political rhetoric being expressed in the aftermath of the assassination attempt.

      And, contrary to Biden’s insistence that there is “no place in America for this kind of violence”, Katie Stallard, a non-resident global fellow at the Wilson Centre in Washington DC, believes that: “The attack on Donald Trump was shocking, but it wasn’t unprecedented by American standards, and it wasn’t entirely unforeseeable.”

      The Trump assassination attempt follows a disturbing trend in America of extremists embarking on violent plots to silence their perceived opponents.

      Researchers Professor Pete Simi of Chapman University, and Seamus Hughes, University of Nebraska, have examined threats against political candidates between 2013 and 2023. They found that “over the past 10 years, more than 500 individuals have been arrested for threatening public officials. And the trendline is shooting up.”

      Over the past three years alone, America has witnessed a surge in violence linked to a darkening political landscape that has seen combative and toxic discourse infect its body politic.

      The Capitol riots in January 2021 were preceded by a speech from the then president, Donald Trump, where he told an assembled crowd the November 2020 presidential election had been “stolen”. Following this address thousands of the president’s supporters marched on the Capitol building.

      The ensuing mayhem resulted in a violent riot and the deaths of five people, including a police officer.

      In October 2022, Paul Pelosi, the husband of the then House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was attacked in his home and bludgeoned with a hammer by far-right conspiracy theorist David DePape. DePape’s plan was to find Pelosi herself, hold her hostage, and “break her kneecaps”. Donald Trump would later mock Mr Pelosi at a Republican campaign event.

      Donald Trump mocks Paul Pelosi after the House speaker’s husband was assaulted.

      In September 2023, Trump sparked fury with a social media post criticising former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley. On “Truth Social” the former president, angered by revelations that Milley had taken a phone call with Chinese officials after the January 6 2021 riots, wrote: “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”

      Guns and angry folks

      Polling conducted by Professor Robert A. Pape from the University of Chicago, sheds new light on the worrying positions some Americans have towards the utility of political violence. This survey of over 2,000 people found that 10% of respondents viewed the use of force as “justified to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president”. This equates to 26 million adults if the findings are applied to the whole population.

      Within this mix of increasingly dangerous political rhetoric and violence is America’s “guns epidemic”. According to the FBI, the weapon used by the would-be assassin at the Trump campaign rally, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was an AR-style rifle purchased by his father.

      Pape’s survey also found that 7% of respondents supported the use of force “to restore Donald Trump to the presidency”. Of this group, which equates to 18 million adults, around 45% own guns, 40% think the people involved in the Capitol attack were “patriots”, while 10% were either militia members or knew someone who was a militia member.

      White Nationalists march at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, 2017.

      The reaction to the Trump assassination attempt by some of his most prominent congressional supporters has bordered on the reckless. Ohio Senator J.D. Vance – a potential vice presidential nominee – stated that Joe Biden bore responsibility for the attack. He asserted that the president’s campaign speeches had “led directly” to what transpired in Pennsylvania.

      Other GOP elected officials have gone further with wild and dangerous rhetoric. Georgia congressman Mike Collins posted on X that “Joe Biden sent the orders” and called for the Republican district attorney in Butler County, where the assassination attempt took place, to “immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination”.

      There is heightened concern as the summer of political conventions by both Republican and Democratic parties get underway. Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has stated that these large gatherings “boast the largest collections of party members and leaders throughout the entire election cycle and could therefore attract individuals or groups with a vendetta”.

      Read more:
      Trump tones down his rhetoric as he prepares for ‘coronation’ at Republican National Convention

      Many across the United States, and beyond its shores, will hope the Trump assassination attempt will lead to tempered introspection and reasoned political debate. But others justifiably fear the event could serve as a catalyst for deeper polarisation and further acts of violence. More

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in US Politics

      Focus on Bethel Park as classmates describe suspected Trump gunman

      by

      In Bethel Park, where the man who is suspected of opening fire at a Donald Trump campaign rally on Saturday lived with his mother and sister, the houses are small and built of brick, Walmart and Target form central social hubs, and moms watch over their children at a junior league baseball park next to a tributary of the Allegheny River.The attempted assassination of the Republican former president just 45 miles north has put a focus on Bethel Park, as investigators attempt to establish the motivations of the 20-year-old shooter.Authorities on Sunday identified the suspect as Thomas Matthew Crooks. Officials said they believe Crooks acted alone. But so far, they have not been able to uncover a motivation that drove the young man to unleash a hail of bullets at Trump, wounding the former president and killing a former fire chief who was shielding his daughters.The FBI said it would continue to investigate the attack as an attempted assassination and an act of domestic terrorism.“The information that we have indicates that the shooter acted alone,” said Kevin Rojek, supervisory special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office. “At present, we have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we’re still very early in this investigation.”The FBI said Crook had not been on their radar. Since his identification, a fragmentary portrait has emerged, almost by virtue of its omissions. He was employed as a dietary aide at Bethel Park Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The nursing home’s administrator Marcie Grimm said Crooks “performed his job without concern and his background check was clean”.View image in fullscreenNor have there been significant clues found in his political affiliations. He had registered Republican but had also donated $15 to the liberal ActBlue political action committee on Joe Biden’s inauguration day. He had no past criminal cases against him, according to public court records.Claire, a young woman who had known Crooks through his elder sister and who did not provide a last name, said she could not quite believe the boy she had once knew had attempted to assassinate a US president.“He’s so young to want to go do that,” she said.She said Crooks had had a difficult time socially. “He wasn’t the most attractive-looking and I don’t think he did sports that can add appeal,’” she said.Former classmates who spoke to other news outlets filled in other memories. Some described Crooks as smart and shy. Others spoke of a long history of being bullied. An unnamed former classmate told the New York Post that Crooks was “a loner”. He said: “He probably had a friend group, but not many friends.”View image in fullscreenJameson Myers said that Crooks had tried out for the school rifle team but had not made the roster. “He didn’t just not make the team, he was asked not to come back because how bad of a shot he was, it was considered, like, dangerous,” Myers told ABC News. Jameson Murphy told the Post that Crooks was “a comically bad shot”.Max R Smith said to the Philadelphia Inquirer that Crooks “definitely was conservative”. “It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate,” Smith said.With a nation on edge, establishing Crook’s motives is seen as a key to unlocking larger issues of deep political discord.“We’re looking into his background, his day-to-day activities, any writings and social media posts that might help us identify what led to this shooting,”, the FBI’s Rojek said. “We have not seen anything threatening at this time”. More

    • 213 Shares179 Views

      in US Politics

      Blue Maga: We need to talk about the cult-like turn of the Democratic party | Mehdi Hasan

      by

      Is the Democratic party, the self-proclaimed party of liberal values and scientific data, morphing into a Maga-like cult in front of our eyes?Over the past few weeks, the calls for Joe Biden to step aside have been met not with thoughtful critiques or reasoned counter-arguments but with furious accusations of treason, disloyalty, and betrayal.Whatever happened to the importance of voicing dissent? Of speaking truth to power? Weren’t liberals supposed to be the folks who value open debate and discussion?Writing for the Guardian, 15 years ago, the cult expert Rick Ross warned us to “watch out for the tell-tale signs” of a cult, including “no tolerance for questions or critical inquiry”, “there is no legitimate reason to leave”, “former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil”, and “the group/leader is always right”.Anyone who has observed the behaviour of the Democratic party base, especially online; of elected Democrats on Capitol Hill; and of the Democratic president himself, since the CNN debate on 28 June, will have spotted some of those “tell-tale signs”.Let’s start with the Democratic base – those “hyper-partisans” who “act like members of a cult because they treat their political party like a religious identity”, to quote the political strategist Chris Sosa. I have spent the past few weeks watching the Very Online members of the base embracing an endless stream of “Blue Anon” conspiracy theories, pushed on behalf of the Dear Leader.Did Biden deliver a car-crash debate performance live on CNN or … did CNN’s “carefully considered FRAMING & LIGHTING design” make Biden look older and paler than he was, as one viral tweet (bizarrely) claimed? Did the president struggle to make sense in his ABC News interview with George Stephanopolous or … was it a result of ABC “destroying the sound quality in Biden’s interview to make him sound bad”, as another viral tweet (ridiculously) put it? Did the presumptive Democratic nominee take a clear hit in almost every post-debate poll or … was it actually the case that “President Biden’s poll numbers skyrocketed in swing states and CNN’s ratings plummeted”, as yet another viral tweet (falsely) declared?Conspiracy theories aside, these “hyper-partisans” have loudly railed against members of the press, with op-ed writers who question Biden dubbed “seditionists”; with demands to keep journalists who are deemed to be even vaguely anti-Biden “off air”; with campaigns to cancel media subscriptions in response to criticisms of Biden. (My own media company Zeteo has lost a bunch of paid subscribers since I wrote my last column for the Guardian: one demanded a “refund” because I asked Biden to step aside for Kamala Harris, while another told me to “support Biden or GTFO”.)Last week, my former MSNBC colleague Jen Psaki hosted a discussion with the Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau, on Biden’s travails, and her show’s Twitter account advertised the interview in advance. The response? A torrent of anger, abuse, and attacks in the replies: “weak propagandist”, “JFC she is one of them”, “hard pass + unfollow”, “hell no”, “Eewwwwwwww”.If neither Psaki nor Favreau – respectively, President Biden’s former White House press secretary and President Obama’s former speechwriter – is now considered a kosher Democrat, then who is? If attacking them for disloyalty isn’t evidence of cult-like behavior, then what is?Then there are the party’s elected representatives, who are busy marching in lockstep with the White House in public, while losing their shit in private. “On Capitol Hill, Democrats panic about Biden but do nothing,” read the headline in the New York Times.Sound familiar?The party that mocked Republicans for slamming Trump in private while backing him in public is now doing the same with its own leader. At the time of writing, only about 20 congressional Democrats have called for Biden to step aside and yet reporting from the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and more, suggest dozens more are saying the same behind closed doors. Most elected Democrats believe Biden will struggle to win against Trump in November, noted Politico’s Rachael Bade last week, “even if they don’t say it on record”.And what’s one of the main reasons why they won’t say it on the record? Because they’re afraid. That’s not my opinion – it’s theirs. “I wish I was more brave,” NBC News quoted one anonymous Democratic state party chair as saying. “I would be crucified by them if I spoke out of line.” This person spoke on the condition of anonymity, according to NBC, “because they fear retaliation from the president’s camp”.Again, sound familiar?So let’s talk about the Democratic president in the White House, who is fast becoming an unlikely and unexpected cult leader. And yet, do you remember Trump’s infamous declaration that “I alone can fix it”? Here’s Biden, in his interview with Stephanopolous:“And who’s gonna be able to hold Nato together like me? Who’s gonna be able to be in a position where I’m able to keep the Pacific Basin in a position where we’re – we’re at least checkmating China now? Who’s gonna – who’s gonna do that?”Do you remember how Trump obsessed over the size of his crowds, both at campaign rallies and at his inauguration? Here’s Biden, responding to a question from Stephanopolous on how he plans to “turn the campaign around”:“You saw it today. How many – how many people draw crowds like I did today? Find me more enthusiastic than today? Huh?”I could go on and on. When Biden pretends the polls are all wrong; attacks members of the press at a campaign rally; and calls into a morning show to mock the “elites”… who does he sound like? When members of the Biden campaign decide to accuse their critics of “bed-wetting”, deride a group of “self-important” liberal podcasters, and pick a fight with a Hollywood star … which campaign do they sound like?Consider this paragraph from the New York Times on Friday, referring to a Biden campaign event in Detroit which had the “flavor of a Trump rally at times”:“When Mr Biden referred to his political opponent, there were chants of ‘Lock him up’ – which the president did not discourage. When he criticized news media coverage, big cheers followed, with his supporters turning to boo and point fingers at reporters.”How does this not sound like “Blue Maga”?Now, there are both good reasons and bad to explain the cultish abyss into which the party seems to be descending. There is a genuine and understandable fear of a second Trump presidency and a legitimate frustration with “both sides” media coverage. However, there is also an undeniable tendency toward groupthink and hyper-partisanship, exacerbated by social media echo chambers and online grifters. Misinformation is rife across the political spectrum; conspiracism and paranoia is being normalized on the liberal left, not just the Maga right.So Blue Maga may not be violent or authoritarian like Red Maga, but the consequences of a second major political party in the United States succumbing to a weird online cult of personality could be disastrous for our democracy.Democrats who have spent the past decade (rightly) attacking Republicans for their blind and zealous devotion to Trump would do well to heed the advice of Friedrich Nietzche: “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.”

      Mehdi Hasan is the CEO and editor-in-chief of the new media company Zeteo More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in US Politics

      Ex-Secret Service agents say ‘massive realignment’ warranted after Trump rally shooting

      by

      Former US Secret Service agents spent the early aftermath of what authorities say was an attempt to assassinate Donald Trump at a political rally on Saturday speaking out about what might have prevented their previous employer from failing to halt the shooter before he opened fire.Evy Poumpouras, who served in the Secret Service’s presidential protective division during Barack Obama’s time in the White House, told NBC’s Today show that rallies like the one this weekend – in a relatively exposed rural tract of Butler county, Pennsylvania – “are the most anxious you’re ever going to be as an agent because you’re trying to secure all of it”.In her remarks Sunday, the author and journalist suggested local- and state-level law enforcement officers who collaborate with the Secret Service for such events were likely the first line of defense in the area surrounding the Trump rally venue – a position reportedly confirmed by agency spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.At Saturday’s rally, a man with a rifle was able to climb atop the roof of a bottle manufacturing plant and fire several shots at the former president at a distance of only about 165 yards.Multiple people who were outside the venue but near that building – listening to Trump campaign for another presidency – reported trying to point out the gunman to police officers stationed there. But Poumpouras said a key question to answer moving forward is to determine whether those people were directly speaking to officers or if they were unsuccessfully trying to get their attention.“When you’re doing these rallies, you’re looking at thousands of people,” said Poumpouras, who surmised the shooter waited to get into position until after Trump began speaking and commanded the bulk of rally goers’ attention. “How much law enforcement do you have? Do you have one law enforcement official to – what – 1,000 [attendees]? And are they able to get that person’s attention?”The Associated Press said it was told by two law enforcement officials that a local police officer tried to confront Crooks on the roof before the shooting. But the officer retreated after Crooks pointed a rifle at him, and within moments the attacker fired toward Trump.One ex-commander of the Long Beach, California, police department’s special tactics team told NBC it was “a fundamental security failure” to allow someone on a rooftop so near the rally Saturday.Poumpouras also said government officials are in store for difficult conversations about whether they provide enough resources to adequately secure such gatherings. She said it wasn’t uncommon for her to solicit a certain number of agents to protect a certain occasion only to be told there wasn’t enough money or manpower to fulfill that request.“This all costs something,” she said.Once the shooting erupted, former Secret Service agent Jeff James said agents largely responded appropriately with respect to shielding Trump, who had a bullet wound to the tip of his right ear. Counter-snipers fired back at the gunman, mortally wounding him after he apparently killed one spectator and badly injured two others.Agents quickly draped themselves over Trump after he fell on the stage, prepared to put themselves between the former president and any other gunshots aimed at him.In an interview with Pennsylvania news station WTAE, James faulted agents for how long it took them to whisk Trump away and into an armored vehicle. Trump put his shoes back after they had been knocked off his feet, took a few moments to defiantly raise his fist and then repeatedly mouthed the word “fight” to his supporters before agents managed to get him out of view.“There may have been four more gunmen who were going to start opening fire,” James – who estimated that Trump came within three inches of being shot squarely in the face – told WTAE. “We always treat that attack as if that is just the precursor, and the real attack is still to come.”Ultimately, Saturday warranted “an intensive review” of Trump’s security along with “a massive realignment”, ex-Secret Service agent Joseph LaSorsa – who protected former presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush – told Reuters.To that end, Joe Biden said Sunday he had ordered the Secret Service to ensure that Trump has adequate security, including at the Republican national convention beginning Monday in Milwaukee. The president also said he had ordered an independent review of security at the Trump rally.Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director, has been invited to testify before Congress on 22 July.Trump’s assassination attempt was arguably the low point of a tumultuous last decade for the Secret Service. As documented by the Washington Post, the agency had previously drawn scrutiny after high-ranking members allegedly drove drunk through the White House grounds, struck a barricade and sped past a package dropped by a woman who had claimed to be “holding a … bomb”.The package contained a book, but that hardly quelled outrage, with other scandals ensnaring the Secret Service, which also investigates certain financial crimes.There were agents who purportedly hired prostitutes in Colombia and allowed a fence-jumper at the White House to get well into the building. Agents also took four days to realize a sniper fired shots at the White House, and they somehow allowed a man carrying a gun to share an elevator with Obama.Saturday was the first time a president or leading party Oval Office candidate had been shot since the 1981 attack on Ronald Reagan outside a hotel in Washington DC.The most recent of four assassinated US presidents was John F Kennedy in 1963. The assassination of his fellow Democrat and brother Robert F Kennedy in 1968 while he pursued their party’s White House nomination resulted in presidential candidates being afforded the protection of the Secret Service.Pleas from Kennedy’s son, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to be provided Secret Service protection himself as he runs an independent presidential campaign ahead of November’s election received an infusion of support after the attack at Trump’s rally Saturday, as Politico reported. More

    • 150 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Biden urges US to reject ‘extremism and fury’ after Trump assassination attempt

      by

      Joe Biden on Sunday forcefully condemned political violence and appealed to a nation still reeling from the attempted assassination of Donald Trump to reject “extremism and fury”.In a primetime address from the Oval Office, Biden said Americans must strive for “national unity,” warning that the political rhetoric in the US had gotten “too heated” as passions rise in the final months before the November presidential election.“There is no place in America for this kind of violence – for any violence. Ever. Period. No exception,” the president said. “We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.”Biden’s plea for Americans to “cool it down” came as Trump said that he would use his speech at the Republican national convention to bring “the whole country, even the whole world, together.”“The speech will be a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” Trump told the Washington Examiner, adding that the reality of what had happened was “just setting in.”Biden ordered an independent review into how a gunman was able to get on to a roof overlooking a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, and fire multiple shots at the former president from an “elevated position” outside of the venue. The FBI warned on Sunday that online threats of political violence, already heightened, had spiked since the shooting.The attack, which is being investigated as an attempted assassination and a potential act of domestic terrorism, left Trump injured at the ear, but it killed a spectator, identified as a former fire chief, and critically injured two others.“We cannot, we must not go down this road in America,” Biden added, citing a rising tide of political violence that included the assault on the US Capitol, the attack on the husband of the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, and a kidnapping plot against Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan.Biden also praised Corey Comperatore, the 50-year-old former fire chief who was killed as he dove to shield his wife and daughter. Comperatore, Biden said, was a “hero” and extended his “deepest condolences” to his family.Investigators were still searching for the motive of the 20-year-old suspect, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.More than 24 hours after the attack, the investigation into how Crooks managed to open fire, reportedly using a AR-15 bought legally by his father, at the rally remained fluid. Investigators have seized several of Crooks’s devices and are starting to piece together his communications before the event. Authorities said they had discovered potential explosive devices in Crooks’s car.Meanwhile, details have begun to emerge about the suspect, who was shot and killed by Secret Service counter-snipers.As a junior in high school, Crooks donated $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a political action committee aligned with the Democratic party, but eight months later he registered to vote as a member of the Republican party.Former classmates described the man as a smart, and quiet student. One former classmate told Reuters that Crooks had not shown a particular interest in politics in high school, and would rather would discuss computers and games.“He was super smart. That’s what really kind of threw me off was, this was, like, a really, really smart kid, like he excelled,” the classmate told Reuters. “Nothing crazy ever came up in any conversation.”Another young man who described himself as a former classmate of Crooks at Bethel Park high school spoke with reporters on Sunday, recalling how his ex-companion “was bullied almost every day” on campus.View image in fullscreenThe president, who was at church in Delaware during the time of the shooting, cut short his weekend and returned to Washington to confront the situation, arriving at the White House after midnight. He and Trump spoke late on Saturday.Biden spoke briefly from the White House earlier on Sunday, delivering a similar message from the Roosevelt room after receiving a briefing on the investigation in the Situation Room.In those comments, Biden asked the public not to “make assumptions” about the shooter’s motives or affiliations, as conspiracy theories and misinformation swirl online.The Republican national convention will begin on Monday in Milwaukee, where Trump is expected to receive a hero’s welcome by the party’s rank and file, rattled but defiant. Trump, who arrived in Milwaukee on Sunday evening, is not scheduled to address the convention until Thursday evening, after he is formally nominated as the party’s nominee.Speaking to the New York Post while en route to Milwaukee, Trump said he was “supposed to be dead”, adding: “The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle.”Biden’s remarks came at a fragile moment in the election, a re-match between the president and Trump already defined by exceptional tumult and deep political polarization.For weeks, the president has been fighting calls from elected officials in his own party to abandon his re-election campaign after a disastrous debate performance last month that underscored concerns about his age and fitness for office. The 81-year-old Biden has insisted he will not be pushed out as the party’s nominee, but has done little to quell the swirl of doubt that he is the best candidate to defeat Trump in November.Trump earlier this year became the first former president to be convicted of felonies, and faces several more legal challenges related to his role in the 6 January Capitol attack and efforts to overturn the results of a lost election. At least one Republican senator, Mike Lee of Utah, has called for the criminal cases against Trump to be dropped in light of the assassination attempt.In his remarks on Sunday evening, Biden was realistic about the challenge of heeding his words, accepting that national unity was “the most elusive of goals” in an America deeply divided into camps. Already, Republicans were blaming the violence on the president, arguing that Biden’s attempts to portray Trump as a threat to American democracy helped fuel a toxic political environment.Yet the attack has drawn condemnation from Republican and Democratic officials across the country as well as world leaders.“We need to turn the temperature down,” House speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday, in an interview on CNN.The president acknowledged that he and Trump offer drastically competing visions, and that their supporters diverged sharply. In Milwaukee, Republicans would offer sustained critiques of Biden’s record, the president said, while he planned to travel on Monday to Nevada, where he would rally supporters around his agenda. Because of the attack, he postponed a trip to Texas, where he was scheduled to speak at the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B Johnson presidential library.“We debate and disagree. We compare and contrast the character of the candidates, the records, the issues, the agenda, the vision for America,” he said, arguing that the contest should be settled at the “ballot box” and “not with bullets”.After the attack on Saturday night, the Biden campaign reportedly moved to pull down its television ads “as quickly as possible” and pause all “outbound communications”.“Politics must never be a literal battlefield or, god forbid, a literal killing field,” Biden emphasized in his address on Sunday night. He urged Americans to “get out of our silos” and echo chambers where misinformation is rampant.“Remember: though we may disagree,” he said, “we are not enemies.” More