Even President Trump’s most vocal critics should recognize his grace and courage under fire. He showed it once again in his statement Saturday evening after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
If I can borrow from my friend Miranda Devine, he praised the president of the Correspondents Association, who has been a harsh critic of Trump. He was magnanimous towards the secret services, even if they will have to answer difficult questions in the weeks to come. And he was modest about the likelihood that the shooter would attack him. He said: “It’s always shocking when something like this happens. It’s happened to me a bit before. And it doesn’t change the fact that we’re sitting next to each other.” Mr. Trump added that “if you take presidents, it’s 5.8 percent and about 8 percent get shot. So no one told me it’s such a dangerous profession.” He concluded: “It’s dangerous. These are dangerous things, whether here or elsewhere. No country is safe.”
It’s grace under fire. Standing in his formal attire, with his bow tie in place, the president holds an extraordinary press conference. Hats off to my friends at the New York Sun for pointing this out.
This is apparently the third assassination attempt in two years. No president has faced this. My former boss, President Reagan, was nearly killed by an assassin’s bullet in 1981. And as far as I know, there were no other assassination attempts until Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024.
Mr. Trump has also reflected on this subject. Listen: “Well, you know, I’ve studied assassinations, and I have to tell you, these are the people who have the most impact, the ones who do the most. Take a look at the people. Abraham Lincoln.” Yet, he added, “those are the ones who do the most, the ones who have the biggest impact, those are the ones they’re looking for.”
Faith Bottum of the Wall Street Journal editorial page notes that 8.5 percent of presidents have died by assassination. Mr. Trump, however, has repeatedly said, including at his news conference Saturday night, that he was not worried about an assassination and that he actually wanted the dinner to go ahead that evening before the Secret Service ruled it out. Yet this president has also repeatedly stated that he cannot let the criminal class or political lunatics put an end to free speech, or even any political gathering. And of course, he wanted the Correspondents’ Dinner redone in 30 days, or as soon as possible.
By the way, hats off to Ms. Bottum for calling Mr. Trump courageous and courageous. The Journal’s vaunted editorial page has been particularly harsh and critical of Mr. Trump. The president called for unity and that’s a great idea, but somehow, at this time in our history, it just doesn’t seem realistic.
During my life, I witnessed the assassination of JFK, then Martin Luther King, then Senator Robert F. Kennedy. These were great national tragedies. There was an assassination attempt on President Ford in 1975. Then Reagan’s attempt in 1981, then the multiple attempts on Mr. Trump. I don’t know what happened to the country I love. I know America can do better. Hopefully this will be the case one way or another.