DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Donald Trump buoyed by sniper’s assault
Even an unsuccessful assassin can change the course of history, it seems.
The shocking crime committed in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday demonstrated how the febrile world of US politics can shift dramatically in just a few seconds.
Aided and abetted by America’s love of the gun, the course of the forthcoming race for the White House has transformed.
Even the sworn political enemies of Donald Trump must have found themselves slightly in awe of the 78-year-old former president’s instantaneous response to his near-death experience, particularly his lightning calculation that this was, in fact, an opportunity to be seized.
Little over 70 seconds after dropping to the floor of the stage, clutching his bleeding ear, he was brought back to his feet, then raised his fist and urged his followers to: ‘Fight, fight, fight.’
Even the sworn political enemies of Donald Trump must have found themselves slightly in awe of the 78-year-old former president’s instantaneous response to his near-death experience
The assassination attempt leaves the Democrats with an even more pressing decision to make about the future candidacy of Joe Biden (pictured)
His resilience will play well with many Americans. Support is likely to solidify.
What, then, for the US presidency?
It leaves the Democrats with an even more pressing decision to make about the future candidacy of Joe Biden, who last week at the Nato summit introduced Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky as ‘president Putin’.
Senior Republicans have suggested anti-Trump rhetoric from Mr Biden and other Democrats may have inspired Saturday’s 20-year-old gunman.
Indeed, there is already a disturbing trend on both sides of the Atlantic which sees the intolerant Left regard attacks on Right-wing politicians as a delicious type of joke.
It is time for that puerile arrogance to end. A democracy decides by the ballot box and not by a sniper’s bullet.
Many other grave questions are raised by the would-be assassin’s actions.
The US Secret Service is again wallowing in disgrace, 60 years after John F Kennedy was driven along Dallas’s Dealey Plaza in that open-topped limousine.
The US Secret Service is again wallowing in disgrace. Is its failure to search and secure a Pennsylvania barn rooftop 400ft from Trump’s podium mean it’s heading for reform?
Trump is sure to play to the gallery as ‘the man they tried to silence’ at the Republican National convention in Milwaukee. He may have been handed the rhetorical ammunition to again become president
Does the agency’s failure to search and secure a Pennsylvania barn rooftop just 400ft from Trump’s podium mean it is heading for root-and-branch reform?
Furthermore, can American politicians continue to meet their public face-to-face, or must they pitifully withdraw solely to social media and the airwaves because the risk of violence is too great?
‘Assassination,’ George Bernard Shaw wrote, ‘is the extreme form of censorship.’
We can expect Donald Trump to pursue a similar rationale. He is sure to play to the gallery as ‘the man they tried to silence’ at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, which starts today, and throughout the coming campaign.
The would-be assassin may, ironically, have handed Mr Trump the rhetorical ammunition he needs to once again become the world’s most powerful man.
No need to rush: The Conservative Party should be mindful of the maxim ‘act in haste, repent at leisure’.
There is no reason for an accelerated leadership election so soon after Labour secured its regrettable landslide.
Conservatives should take their time to replace Rishi Sunak (pictured) as leader – now is the moment for reflection and reunification
Now is a time for reflection, consolidation and reunification.
Party members must put aside all damaging internecine rivalries of the kind that led to the jettisoning of their most valuable electoral asset, Boris Johnson.
If an interim leader is necessary to focus minds on the future and to make the correct choice, then so be it.
