Allan Lichtman: Presidential historian on the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump

There's growing debate about what the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump will do to a politically turbulent America.

Trump was hit in the ear by a bullet after a shooter opened fire at a Republican rally in Pennsylvania.

Presidential historian Allan Lichtman says the political violence may well have a silver lining, as it did after the shooting of Ronald Reagan in 1981.

"Instead of seeking revenge or attacking his political opponents, he formed a campaign for gun control - and for a while, it brought the country together."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Trump, as you will know by now, has been shot
in an assassination attempt, the first on a current or
former president since nineteen eighty one, when Ronald Reagan was
shot just two months after being sworn in the government.
Has been identified as twenty year old Thomas Crooks. He
was shot dead on site. US President Joe Biden has
spoken to Trump, and Biden's campaign has suspended all attack

(00:22):
ads following the attempted assassination. Joining me now from California
is US presidential historian Alan Lightman. Alan, thank you very
much for being with me. What generally happens? I mean,
there have been lots of attempts and some of them
successful in the past. What generally happens after something like this?
Is there more bloodshed? Does the temperature go up even further?

(00:47):
I think we may have lost Allan there. We'll come
back to him, Alan, can you hear me? Okay? I'm
just asking what generally happens after an attempt like this?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yes, As I said, political violence has been endemic in
modern America. You know, seven years ago, Republican Representative Scalise
was shot. More recently, there was this horrific hammer attack
on the husband of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

(01:18):
The attacker was trying to kill Pelosi. And of course,
the worst example of recent political violence was perpetrated by
Donald Trump himself, inciting the January sixth insurrection, sitting for
three hours and letting the mayhem take place, ignoring his
own supporters telling him to stop inciting the rioters by

(01:42):
an inflammatory tweet about Vice President Mike Pence when they
were shouting hanging Mike Pence. The violence resulted in injuries
to more than one hundred and forty police officers and
several direct or indirect deaths. Now, the question is will
this attempt further polarize the country or can it possibly

(02:05):
bring us together? There is a positive model. You mentioned
the shooting of Ronald Reagan in nineteen eighty one. His
press secretary, a staunch conservative Republican, James Brady, was grievously wounded.
Instead of seeking revenge or attacking his political opponents, he

(02:26):
formed the Brady Campaign for Gun Control and for a
while brought the country together in an effort to stop
the epidemic of gun violence in America. We got the
assault weapons ban, which sadly has been suspended, and by
the way, The weapon that was used in this assassination
attempt and the killing of an attendee was an assault weapon.

(02:48):
We got the Brady Bill on background checks, but unfortunately
there's been no progress since then. And could we now
come together and stopping gun violence, which is a major
course of the deaths of our children. An American overall
is twenty times, not twenty percent, twenty times more likely

(03:11):
to be killed murdered by a gun than residents of
our closest pure countries, which also have mental health and
drug problems. The difference is guns. Can we replicate what
James Brady did?

Speaker 1 (03:26):
Ellen The October poll by the Public Religion Research Institute
and the Brookings Institution found that one in four Americans
agreed with this sentence, true American patriots may have to
resort to violence in order to save our country. So
that was thirteen percent of Democratic voters and thirty three
percent of Republicans who agreed with that. How do you

(03:49):
navigate an election cycle when you've got people with such
extreme views.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's very sad, and that's why we have so much
endemic political violence. And the only answer is to do
what James Brady did. Organized, organized, persuaded vote for those
who are willing to deal with gun violence. It's a
very difficult issue because the gun lobby, the gun manufacturers

(04:20):
have a death grip on so many of our politicians.
But if the movement gains momentum as well, it should
because the majority of Americans, how overwhelming majority of Americans
believe in reasonable gun control. So if you can get
a political movement going, I wrote a whole book about
this repeal the Second Amendment, the Case for a Safe

(04:44):
for America. We're not going to get a repeal of
the Second Amendment. But if we get a movement going,
that's how change occurs. That's how you've got the great
civil rights initiatives of the nineteen sixties.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
For example, Allan, thank you very much for your time
this morning. That is out of California, US presidential historian
Alan Lightman. The time is for more from News Talks
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