AMERICAN democracy dodged a bullet on July 13. At around 6.10 pm, gunshots rang out at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Donald Trump, a former US president, was wounded. Bloodied, Mr Trump, 78, survived.
But Corey Comperatore, 50, who was in the audience, did not. Others were badly injured.
We condemn in the strongest possible terms this shocking violence.
We join with world leaders, including our prime minister, in calling for reflection on the way deeds directly or indirectly pave the way for this kind of horror.
Joe Biden has questions to answer.
The US president, and his Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, have presided over the most egregious breach of security in generations. They seek refuge in an “independent security review.” But the review does not matter. The damage has been done.
However, at a moment when unity is required, Republicans have, disappointingly, sought to score points. They have weaponised the assassination attempt, deeming it the fruit of Biden’s campaign against Trump’s fascist leanings, aided and abetted by the radical left, the media and a raft of criminal indictments.
But it was not the right to free speech, protected under the First Amendment, that bought the AR-15-style rifle used by the assailant. It was not legitimate criticism of the gun-lobby-beholden Republican party that scaled a building and took aim.
It was not the well-grounded fear that Trump is a threat to democracy that pulled the trigger.
It was Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, a registered Republican who once donated to a liberal organisation.
Whatever his perverted mindset, he was no surrogate for the millions who today wish only for peaceful transfers of power while also being unsympathetic to Trump’s record.
Lest we forget, it was only weeks ago the Republican leader uttered, “If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath!”
As a deadly mob shouting “Hang Mike Pence!” rampaged the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump supplied encouragement.
In his very first speech as president, he railed, “This American carnage stops here.” It didn’t. Hate crimes against the vulnerable surged under his presidency.
We are relieved Trump escaped a worse fate.
At the same time, the right-thinking world now looks on with disquiet as dangerously sycophantic Republicans, emboldened by a warped sense of divine intervention which results in standards applying to everyone else but him, formally coronate their candidate. As if washed anew by the Almighty, all of Trump's sins will be erased, his deification perfected.
It is only ballots, not bullets, that can protect Americans, and global democracy, from this.
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