By TONY LOPEZ
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Donald J. Trump, bleeding profusely on his upper right ear, blood criss-crossing his reddened face, yet the former president looking defiant, his right fist pumped into the air as he hollers “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, while surrounded by at least four Secret Service personnel to protect him from further harm if not death, early evening of Saturday, July 13, 2024 in Butler town, western Pennsylvania.
It’s an image that will forever be etched in the memory of millions of Americans, one that could possibly catapult Trump into the presidency again and change the course of the history of the greatest nation on earth, for good, or perhaps, for the incredible tragedy of many around the world. Bullets, not ballots, would define America’s destiny. Sad.
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Trump survived the assassination attempt. Or an act of domestic terrorism. A spectator was killed in his rally. Two others were critically wounded. His shooter, a lone wolf gunman, was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a student said to be strong in math and science in high school and at the time of his deadly act working as nursing home employee.
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Crooks was killed by Secret Service snipers. Perched on a rooftop about 400 meters away from Trump’s rally site, using an Ar-15 rifle, the suspect had fired up to eight shots, a number missing the former president by a hairline, except for the bullet that pierced his right ear.
President Joseph Biden condemned the assassination, calling it “sick”. The country, he said, needs “to lower the temperature…Politics must never be a literal battlefield or, God forbid, a literal killing field.”
Yet, indeed, America is a literal killing field. Gun violence is a fixture of American life. According to Gun Violence Archive, for each of the last three years, there have been more than 600 mass shootings in the US, an average of almost two a day. The deadliest, in 2017, killed more than 50 and wounded 500.
But the shooting that would define American politics, from here on, and perhaps forever, is that of Trump.