US history is fraught with political violence, with many of the assassination attempts being made on presidents and presidential candidates. The latest instance was the shooting of former president Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night.
Trump said he was “fine” after a bullet, fired by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks in the rally, pierced the upper part of his right ear leaving the US presidential candidate bleeding.
The killings of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley led to Secret Service protection. But the assassination of John F Kennedy led to tighter security arrangements around the president.
Ronald Reagan was seriously wounded by a gunman’s bullet early in his presidency in 1981 while Gerald Ford was the target of two high-profile attempts on his life in the span of 18 days.
But never has a president in modern times been attacked, with the Secret Service nearly foiling all attempts.
Even before Saturday’s incident, polls showed voters worried about possible violence surrounding this year’s presidential election. According to a Bloomberg poll of swing-state in May, half harbourred those fears, including roughly equal shares of Democrats and Republicans. And they are even more common among independents, the poll found.
Let’s look at some of the assassinations and attempted assassinations that have occurred over the decades.
Abraham Lincoln, 16th President: The first president to be assassinated, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, as he and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, attended a special performance of the comedy “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. Lincoln was taken to a house across the street from the theatre for medical treatment after he was shot in the back of the head. He died the next morning. His support for Black rights has been cited as a motive behind his killing. Two years before the assassination, during the Civil War, which was fought over slavery, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation granting freedom to slaves within the Confederacy. Lincoln was succeeded by Vice President Andrew Johnson.
James Garfield, 20th President: Six months after taking office, Garfield was the second president to be assassinated. He was walking through a train station in Washington on July 2, 1881, to catch a train to New England when he was shot by Charles Guiteau. The mortally wounded president lay at the White House for several weeks but died in September after he was taken to the New Jersey shore. He had held office for six months. Garfield was succeeded by Vice President Chester Arthur.
William McKinley, 25th President: McKinley was shot in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901. He was shaking hands with people passing through a receiving line when a man fired two shots into his chest at point-blank range. Doctors had expected McKinley to recover but gangrene then set in around the bullet wounds. Anarchist Leon Czolgosz was convicted of the assassination and put to death. He was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.
Franklin D Roosevelt, 32nd President: Gunshots were fired at Roosevelt when he was giving a speech as a president-elect in Miami. He continued his address and recovered, eventually losing to Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt was not injured in the February 1933 shooting that killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak.
Harry S Truman, 33rd President: Two gunmen broke into the Blair House, across the street from the White House, in November 1950 where Truman was staying. Truman was not injured, but a White House policeman and one of the assailants were killed in an exchange of gunfire.
John F Kennedy, 35rd President: An assassin armed with high-powered rifle shot Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963. Kennedy was rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he died soon after. He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was sworn into office in a conference room aboard Air Force One. He is the only president to take the oath of office on an airplane. Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to life in prison. Kennedy’s son, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is running as an independent presidential candidate in 2024.
Gerald Ford, 38th President: Ford faced two assassination attempts within weeks in 1975 and was not hurt in either incident. Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson, attempted to shoot Ford in Sacramento, California on September 5, 1975. Fromme was sentenced to prison and released in 2009. Three weeks later, Sara Jane Moore fired a shot at Ford in San Francisco, making the two women the most prominent female would-be assassins in US history. Moore was sent to prison and released in 2007.
Ronald Reagan, 40th President: Reagan was leaving a speech in Washington, D.C., and walking to his motorcade when he was shot by John Hinckley Jr., who was in the crowd. Reagan recovered from the March 1981 shooting. Three other people were shot, including his press secretary, James Brady, who was partially paralyzed as a result. Hinckley was immediately arrested and kept in institutional psychiatric care until 2016, 12 years after Reagan’s death.
George W Bush, 43rd President: Bush was attending a rally in Tbilisi in 2005 with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili when a hand grenade was thrown toward him. Both men were behind a bulletproof barrier when the grenade, wrapped in cloth, landed about 100 feet away. The grenade did not explode, and no one was hurt.
Robert F Kennedy, Presidential Candidate: He was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was killed at a Los Angeles hotel, moments after giving speech for winning the 1968 California primary. Kennedy was a US senator from New York and the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated five years earlier.
George C Wallace, Presidential Candidate: Wallace, the governor of Alabama, was shot when he was campaigning for Democrats in Maryland in 1972. The incident left him paralysed from the waist down. Arthur Bremer was convicted in the shooting and sentenced to prison. He was released in 2007.
(With inputs from agencies)