On July 13th, a Pennsylvania man named Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. The bullet pierced the upper section of Trump’s ear just millimeters away from his skull, drawing flowing blood and sending Trump to the ground as Secret Service tackled and shielded him, all while screaming, casualties, blood, and other injuries painted the scene just feet away.
What does this man do? The opposite of what any one of us would have done. The opposite of what anyone thought Trump would do.
With a backdrop of the American flag so perfectly placed it looks premeditated and blood flowing from his head and across his face, he rises above the surrounding Secret Service and raises his fist in defiance while photographer Evan Vucci (Associated Press) took what will go down in history as one of the most iconic photos ever.
It was impressive, it was awe inspiring. To deny this would be disingenuous.
It’s the kind of thing you would hope a American figure would do, but not something you would ever expect to see. It was like a movie.
In that moment it wasn’t Donald Trump standing there with his fist in the air, it was an American and one of our brothers.
It was also simultaneously one of the most brave and the most stupid things he could have done, but regardless it happened and when it did, it was a moment changed the course of history.
The 47th President of the United States
Barring an unknown extraordinary event of such magnitude its difficult to even example a scenario, Donald J. Trump will likely be the next President of the United States.
The moment Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to assassinate the 45th President of the United States was the moment the race for President was plausibly over.
You know it. I know it. and Even Biden knows it. He just dropped out of the race.
It certainly didn’t help that it took Biden almost an hour to address the country as Ben Carson meticulously documented on X, however, the assassination attempt is far from the sole reason the race is over. It has been an increasingly uphill battle all year starting back in 2023 for President Joe Biden.
The “Get Trump” movement only made him stronger with each derogatory statement, lawsuit, indictment, accusation, and condemnation.
Many didn’t even think Trump would run, his numbers were dismal until the FBI raided his Mar-a-largo home. That alone put Trump on the map as a potential candidate.
Back to back civil lawsuits, one landing at a ridiculous near 500 million dollar judgement for one of the silliest lawsuits ever filed in a court of law boosted his poll numbers tremendously.
After his criminal conviction on controversial charges because his book-keeper listing payments of legal bills as legal bills, Trump broke fundraising records, and took the lead in the polls. Notably, legal experts expect this conviction be reversed on appeal.
If that were not enough, enter the debate of June 27th which seriously put a dent in the Presidents campaign efforts, plausibly ending the race right there, when Biden delivered what is likely the worst debate performance in the history of planet Earth.
It was sad, embarrassing, and difficult to watch without cringing. Even more shocking was Trump’s good behavior. He has multiple opportunities to attack Biden on his dismal showing, but opted to uncharacteristically keeps his mouth shut, only calling attention to one completely incoherent statement to which he responded,
“I don’t think he even knows what he said”
Yet, still, there was a glimmer of hope that Biden might be able to put his head out of the mud, until Trump was shot.
Trump Shows Emotion, The Left Shows Asperity
To add insult to injury, a solemn, low-key, emotional Trump attended the Republican National Convention. His final speech to end the convention was low-key and even boring in parts. It sounded like a typical political speech with a touch of emotion to start.
The complete opposite of what we’ve grown accustomed to when it comes to Trump.
Unfortunately, the left and the media continue to say exactly the wrong things.
When Biden recently tested positive for COVID-19 (again), Joy Reid on CNN said if Biden comes back from his cold, it should be looked at just like Trump bouncing back from taking a bullet. Yes, she actually did say this (See below).
Whoopi Goldberg told her viewers not to “fall for” 17 year old Kai Trump saying positive things about her grandfather insinuating she was lying. It’s always a negative thing to criticize or even speak about minor children.
There have been countless and baseless conspiracy theories on how the assassination attempt was somehow staged, which is so ridiculous I will not waste another word on any of them.
Jack Black and Kyle Gas of the comedy band, Tenacious D, ended their 30 year run of selling out arenas with a single comment about not “missing Trump” nest time someone takes a shot at him. They’ve cancelled the rest of their tour and have been dropped their agent.
Kyle Gas posted an apology on Instagram, and then deleted it, making things even worse.
These are just a few examples of many stupid things that have been said since the attempt on Trumps life and each one just helps Trump and makes him stronger.
There are some things you just have to leave alone and this is one of them. The overwhelming majority of America supports the fact that Trump survived and all of these tasteless comments just pissed them off.
This helps nothing; it just drives nails into the Biden/Harris campaign coffin.
Again, this was an American moment, not a Trump moment. Trump just happened to be there. You don’t have to support an American’s politics to support an American.
Too Late for Course Correction?
It may well be too late to do anything about this. Democrats have been getting louder about Joe Biden dropping out of the race to the point that as I was finishing this article, he did exactly that.
Which leaves Kamala Harris, who is possibly the only Democrat people dislike more than Biden. What genius thought this was a good idea?
The race is almost over. There are only 3 months and 17 days (at the time of this writing) before the November 5th vote. That’s 107 days. 107 days of a campaign that has been running for 614 days, over 20 months.
If Biden was going to drop out, he should have done this a year ago, not 107 days before the vote, after he’s already won the primaries. It was selfish to be so stubborn and stay in a race he knows he had no business being in. If Trump wasn’t already going to win, Biden likely just handed him the election.
Now, at the last minute, there will be a new Democrat candidate, which can only be Harris. It’s too late to put anyone new in the race, they’d be unprepared and unexperienced and Trump would have a field day with that. Harris is likely the only one who won’t get beaten badly, but a Harris victory is a hard sale. She polls as bad or worse than Biden against Trump and, moreover, she’s part of the same administration people are unhappy with.
However, not even this is certain. The Democrat leadership is divided on what to do. During a time where a sign of unity couldn’t be more important, Democrats are tearing the party apart from the inside. Insert your favorite facepalm emoji here. — sigh —
Let’s not forget, regardless of all of the above, it’s the Biden/Harris administration itself that gives Trump his biggest opportunity to win. Other than hardcore Trump supporters, nobody wants to vote for Trump; they are voting against the Biden/Harris administration, which has been dismal.
This is not to say Biden/Harris haven’t done some good things; they have. However, the economy, inflation, botched Afghanistan withdrawal, failure to codify Roe v. Wade, immigration policy, the war in Ukraine, and the handling of the Israel/Hamas war are all serious issues on the minds of voters and all things nobody had to deal with under a Trump administration.
Trump, of course, is exploiting these shortcomings and paired with a divided Democratic party, ongoing “Get Trump” attacks, and a complete mess of a presidential bid, it’s getting harder and harder to expect a Democrat being elected as President in 2024.
It is still possible, but so is the Sun exploding tomorrow.
References
- Trump Assassination Attempt, https://apnews.com/live/election-biden-trump-campaign-updates-07-13-2024
- AP Photographers, https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/best-of-the-week/first-winner/2024/ap-photographers-vucci-and-pushkar-and-reporter-carr-smyth-dominate-with-photos-and-account-of-assassination-attempt-on-former-president-donald-trump/
- Kyle gas, https://nypost.com/2024/07/21/entertainment/tenacious-ds-kyle-gass-deletes-instagram-apology-for-donald-trump-shooting-comment/
- The Sunrise problem, https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/53248/what-is-the-chance-that-the-sun-will-not-rise-tomorrow
- Biden Drops out, https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-trump-election-07-21-24/index.html