The bullet which grazed the head of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will continue to travel through the discourse of a fragmenting American election season as the country grapples with the consequences of the latest horrifying assassination attempt on a political figure.
The atrocity left one victim, who attended the former president’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, dead. Several other people who went to hear Trump speaking were injured and the rally, broadcast on national television, ended in nightmarish and tragically familiar scenes.
The gunman was later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks (20), from Bethel Park, an affluent suburb of Pittsburgh. He was shot dead by counter-snipers seconds after he attempted to kill Trump while lying on a roof of a barn adjacent to the outdoor rally.
As investigations continue into the motivations and background of the slain shooter and questions are asked about the security arrangements at the rally, representatives from both the Republican and Democratic parties have begun to acknowledge that the heightened, embittered language which has characterised the political scene may have contributed to the latest appalling moment.
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Republican congressman Steve Scalise, who was himself shot and wounded while practising with the House baseball team in 2017, warned that the “hyper-charged rhetoric on the left,” had led to this inflection point in an election campaign which has been framed- and repeatedly spoken of – as an “existential” battle for democracy.
“It’s been an all-out assault on Donald Trump, the person, for years now, and it all adds up,” Scalise said.
It’s an argument that is difficult to counter, given the traumatising scenes of Saturday evening. But it will fall to both parties to contemplate, in the light of this atrocity, the language they use as they articulate their wildly disparate ideological views on the best future for the US.
Over the past decade, the language of the political leaders has become increasingly extreme, vulgar and reckless. The brief, shocking volley of shots which caused death and chaos in a bucolic Pennsylvanian countryside was a devastating reminder that words carry weight.
One of the first calls for a unified response came from Trump’s wife, former First Lady Melania Trump.
“America, the fabric of our gentle nation is shattered but our courage and common sense must ascend and bring us back together as one,” she wrote in a social media post.
Sympathising with the families of the victims of the shooting, she continued: “A monster who recognised my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion – his laughter, ingenuity, love of music and inspiration. The core facets of my husband’s life – his human side – were buried below the political machine. Donald, the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.
“And let us remember that when the time comes to look beyond the left and the right, beyond the red and the blue, we all come from families with a passion to fight for a better life together, while we are here in this earthly realm.”
It was an extraordinary call to amnesty from a woman who is usually reticent in offering a political perspective and who has been conspicuous by her absence from this campaign.
Donald Trump confirmed on Sunday that he will speak, as planned, next Thursday night at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, having come through this event relatively unscathed. The moment places him in the bleak pantheon of American political leaders, from Abraham Lincoln to the Kennedy brothers to Martin Luther King to Ronald Reagan, who have been victims of gun violence.
The atrocity has magnified the sense of Trump as an indestructible force of nature. He is a master operator of the advanced, hyper-fast media age.
One extraordinary image from Saturday seemed to capture the dull pewter streak of the bullet as it bypassed his head having grazed his right ear, drawing blood.
Trump had reacted as though stung by an insect and then instinctively ducked to cover. Within seconds of being surrounded by a human shield of Secret Service agents, he broke through to offer a raised clenched fist to assure his stricken supporters, blood on his cheek and an American flag against the blue skies above him. Somehow, out of the mayhem and terror, he managed to create an imperishable American political image. Little wonder that he will be greeted as a messiah when he does address the crowd in Milwaukee.
But the shooting has acted as a terrifying portent of what might yet happen if Republicans and Democrats alike continue on what has been a path of frenzied, relentless attack and counterattack.
The centre will not hold. Invited to offer a condemnation of his political opponents on Sunday morning, veteran Republican Lindsey Graham would say only: “Well, there’s a lot of frustration on our side about the way president Trump has been treated, but I’m just grateful today that he’s alive. I don’t want to go down that road right now.”
Because it is not a road. It’s an abyss.
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