Even President Trump’s fiercest critics should recognize his grace and courage under fire. He showed it again in his presser on Saturday evening, after the shooting at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.
If I may borrow from my friend Miranda Devine, he praised the president of the Correspondents Association, who has been a severe Trump critic. He was magnanimous about the Secret Service, although they will have to answer some tough questions in the coming weeks. And he was modest about the likelihood that the gunman would attack him. He said: “It’s always shocking when something like this happens. It’s happened to me a little bit. And it doesn’t change the fact that we’re sitting right next to each other.” Mr. Trump added: “If you take presidents, it’s 5.8 percent and shooting is about 8 percent, so no one told me this is such a dangerous job.” He concluded: “It’s dangerous. It’s dangerous stuff, whether it’s here or somewhere else. No country is immune.”
That’s grace under fire. Standing in his formal attire, with his bow tie in place, the president holds an extraordinary press conference. Hat tip to my friends at The New York Sun for pointing this out.
It turned out to be the third assassination attempt in two years. No president has had to deal with that. My former boss, President Reagan, was almost killed by an assassin’s bullet in 1981. And as far as I know, there have been no other assassination attempts until Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, discusses growing concerns about political violence following a shooting during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on “Kudlow.”
Mr. Trump had a thought about this too. Just listen: “Well, you know, I’ve studied assassinations, and I have to tell you: the people who have the most impact, the people who do the most. Look at the people. Abraham Lincoln.” But he added, “the people who do the most, the people who have the biggest impact, are the ones they go after.”
Faith Bottum of the Wall Street Journal editorial page notes that 8.5 percent of presidents have died by assassination. However, Mr. Trump has said time and time again, including during his Saturday night news conference, that he is not concerned about murder and that in fact he wanted the dinner to go ahead that evening before the Secret Service ruled it out. Yet that president has also said many times that he cannot allow the criminal class or the political crazies to curtail freedom of speech, or any political gatherings. And of course he wanted to re-enact the Correspondents’ Dinner in thirty days, or whenever possible.
By the way, hats off to Ms. Bottum for calling Mr. Trump courageous and courageous. The Journal’s vaunted editorial page was particularly harsh and critical of Mr. Trump. The president called for unity and it’s a great thought, but somehow it just doesn’t seem realistic at this time in our history.
In my lifetime, I witnessed the assassination of JFK, then Martin Luther King, and then Senator Robert F. Kennedy. These were great national tragedies. There was an assassination attempt on President Ford in 1975. Then Reagan’s attempt in 1981 and then the multiple attacks on Mr. Trump. I don’t know what happened to the country I love. I know America can do better. Let’s hope that will happen somehow.
