WASHINGTON – When Ronald Reagan was shot just a few blocks from where I was working in Dupont Circle, political assassinations and attempted assassinations were nothing new in American culture.
Reagan was the eighth U.S. president to be the target of an assassination attempt; former President Donald Trump was the ninth.
But there was a decidedly different political environment on that dreary March day in 1981 when Reagan was shot. Sure, there was party loyalty — but not bitter political polarization.
Hours after shots were fired outside a Hilton hotel where Reagan had spoken at an AFL-CIO convention, this town was rife with rumors, including ones that had Reagan had been permanently incapacitated or was dead.
It seemed incredible that a president who had played plenty of cowboys and other tough guys as an actor — and, like Trump, liked to project an aura of strength — could be felled outside a hotel that would thereafter be known by the locals, in a twisted sense of humor, as the “Hinckley Hilton,” after the lone gunman, John Hinckley, whom a court later found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Trump struggled with the Secret Service agents who tried to whisk him away from that podium in Butler, Pa., so he could raise a defiant fist and urge his supporters to “fight.” Reagan, on the other hand, reacted to the attempt to murder him with gentle humor and sought to comfort the nation, and his family and staff.
Reagan was severely wounded, with a bullet lodged just an inch from his heart. He lost about half of his blood volume before surgeons at George Washington University Hospital could staunch the bleeding.
A confused nation, which did not have 24-hour cable news or social media, was panicked by the slow release of information from network special reports about Reagan’s condition.
Things calmed down after the White House sent out press releases with vignettes of Reagan’s unflappable sense of humor during his critical hours in the hospital.
On a gurney, Reagan sought to comfort his wife Nancy with a quip.
“Honey, I forgot to duck,” he said, borrowing a line boxer Jack Dempsey delivered to his own wife after losing the 1926 heavyweight championship.
Just before he was put under for surgery, Reagan joked with his surgeons. “I hope you are all Republicans,” he said.
One doctor, Joseph Giordana, who identified himself afterwards as a liberal Democrat, replied: “Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans.”
Trump’s shooting has not brought the country together.
But this is a post-Jan. 6 world. So, what we have is anger and finger pointing by both parties as to the blame for today’s political violence.
There are GOP conspiracy theories that Democrats played a hand in the Trump assassination — theories that have even been voiced by Republican members of Congress. Meanwhile, on social media, Democratic activists are promoting their own conspiracy theories that the shooting was “staged,” citing as evidence the fact there was no visible blood on Trump’s white shirt.
Reagan was at a low point in popularity when he was shot. A sympathetic nation led his approval rating to jump 11 percentage points in its aftermath.
Trump’s fortunes may rise, too, but not likely anywhere near as high.
Unlike the national unity Reagan’s assassination attempt achieved, the bullets allegedly shot by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks that grazed Trump’s ear and killed a supporter and severely injured two others has only brought more divisiveness. And there is new fear among members of Congress and other political candidates who have canceled town halls and other events in the wake of Saturday’s shooting.
The U.S. Capitol Police has responded by urging lawmakers to notify them of all upcoming events or to travel “by utilizing the Member Security Portal” and providing lawmakers with several briefings this week to update on heightened security measures.
The political spotlight turns to Trump this week as the National Republican Committee meets in Milwaukee to formally nominate him as his party’s presidential candidate. The tone and tenor of the political messages at the event could turn down the heat. But no one is predicting that.
