Attack on Donald Trump opens shocking chapter in American politics: US media

Washington: The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump was a “horrific moment” for America and a “sobering reminder” of the threat that political violence poses to democracy in the country in the run-up to the all-important presidential election, US media commented on Sunday.

Trump, 78, survived an assassination attempt on Saturday when a young gunman fired several shots at him at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, injuring his right ear.

Americans received a sobering reminder Saturday of the threat political violence poses to our democracy, the New York Times reported.

“It is now incumbent upon political leaders of both parties and Americans as individuals and as a community to counter a slide into further violence and the kind of extremist language that fuels it. Saturday’s attack should not be seen as a provocation or justification,” it said.

“Americans must also be aware of the challenge facing this nation. Saturday’s events cannot be dismissed as an exception. Violence infects and influences American political life,” the newspaper said.

“Acts of violence have long shadowed American democracy, but recently they have grown larger and darker. Cultural and political polarization, the ubiquity of guns, and the radicalizing power of the internet have all contributed, as this panel outlined in its 2022 editorial series The Danger Within. This high-stakes presidential election puts the nation’s commitment to peacefully resolving political differences to an even greater test,” it said.

Democracy requires partisans to accept that the process is more important than the results. Even before Saturday’s events, there were troubling signs that many Americans were failing this important test, it said.

The assassination is a terrible moment for America that could have been much worse. But we can’t say it comes as a complete surprise. Political hostility and hateful rhetoric have reached a decibel level that has led to violence and attempted murder far too often in America’s past. Some of us remember 1968 all too well, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The shooter alone is responsible for his actions. But leaders on both sides must stop describing the significance of the election in apocalyptic terms. Democracy will not end if one candidate or the other is elected, they said.

“If Mr Trump wins, there will be no fascism, unless one has little faith in American institutions,” the newspaper said.

The attack on a former president, who is also the Republican presidential candidate for the November election, at a campaign rally just days before he accepted the Republican nomination is by definition an attack on democracy and the right of every American to choose their political leadership, said a CNN commentary.

The assassination attempt, which opens a new, dark chapter in America’s cursed history of political violence, has shaken a nation already deeply alienated during one of the most tense periods in its modern history, it said.

Although Trump is not currently serving as president, his injury underscores the ever-present threat that always hangs over the office and its candidates – and especially over those who claim it for themselves, it said.

Trump is likely to face Democratic President Joe Biden in November’s election, but Biden, 81, is under pressure to drop out of the race after his disastrous performance against Trump in the debate last month.

Four American presidents were assassinated during their term in office, most recently John F. Kennedy in 1963.

The attack on Trump ended a 40-year period in which many had assumed that the Secret Service’s expertise would have greatly reduced the potential for such atrocities. The attack will cast a shadow over humanity for years to come, the news channel said.

Trump’s attacks during his presidential campaign have drawn comparisons to the assassination of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, a bloody year that also saw the murder of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and violence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where the same event will be held this year, it was said.