(Bloomberg) -- The attempted assassination of Donald Trump caps an escalating trend of political violence that has plagued the US for more than a decade, sparking calls for cooler rhetoric and heightened security.
US lawmakers have already launched probes into how the shooter at the western Pennsylvania rally eluded Secret Service and local law enforcement detection. But some lawmakers also began to question whether Saturday’s shooting could lead to more attacks in an election year defined by divisive politics.
“My big concern is that this isn’t a one-off and we’re going to see more political violence,” Representative Guy Reschenthaler, a Pennsylvania Republican, said after the attack at the Trump rally in his home state.
President Joe Biden spoke to the nation Sunday evening from the Oval Office to call on candidates to tamp down incendiary language and on Americans to reject bloodshed as a political tool. “The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not the hands of a would-be assassin,” he said.
The political assassinations of the 1960s contributed heavily to the sense of disorder in the era, with President John F. Kennedy, Black activist Malcolm X, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, a prominent Vietnam War opponent, all murdered in a five-year span.
Even before the attempt to assassinate Trump, half of swing-state voters said they feared violence around the 2024 election in a Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll taken in May.
Lawmakers Vulnerable
Some lawmakers worry they are among the most exposed if the turn toward political violence grows worse.
Most of the 535 members of Congress don’t have government-provided security like other high-ranking US officials, leaving them vulnerable when they’re off the Capitol campus. And for those lawmakers, many of whom lived through the terrifying Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, concerns for their own safety percolated Sunday.
“Like you, I am deeply concerned with this latest instance of violence at a political event and the barrage of threats to elected officials in both parties across the country,” Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, wrote in a letter to colleagues late Saturday.
Threats against US lawmakers have risen steadily since the 2011 shooting of Arizona Democratic Representative Gabby Giffords in Tucson and the 2017 shooting of Republican Representative Steve Scalise at a congressional Republican baseball practice.
Menacing remarks lobbed on social media and left on office voice mails have become the norm rather than the exception. Less common but increasingly prevalent are vandalization at lawmakers’ offices back home. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was attacked with a hammer in 2022 at his San Francisco home.
Representative Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, told CBS News on Sunday that he’s received “numerous death threats” during his less than six years in office.
“That’s why we all need to lower the temperature in the room,” he said. “And we also need to be vigilant and very careful right now.”
Threats Double
Not every threat makes a headline. There were 8,008 threats against US lawmakers reported last year, more than double the number in 2017, the year Scalise was shot, according to the US Capitol Police. The number of cases spiked in 2021 — the year of the insurrection — to a high of 9,625.
Many lawmakers have expressed concerns about security both publicly and privately. Some have gone so far as to hire their own personal details.
On Sunday, Capitol Police officials held calls with some Republican lawmakers and dozens of senior aides to discuss security measures, people familiar said. Another call with lawmakers is planned for Monday, underscoring the concerns.
House Sergeant-at-Arms William McFarland — in a note sent to congressional offices and others Saturday night — assured that he is continuing to work with Capitol Police “to ensure a robust security posture for the Congressional community.”
Calls for Civility
Some lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Senator Chris Coons, called on Sunday for civility, echoing the widespread sentiment after previous incidents of political violence.
“It’s a moment where we were an inch away from a devastating loss of our former president and our presidential nominee,” Republican Senate candidate David McCormick, who was at the Trump rally, told Fox News on Sunday. “This is a moment where I think we have to recognize that we can’t have rhetoric that encourages political violence.”
In the spirit of cross-aisle cooperation, a bipartisan duo — Republican Mike Lawler and Democrat Ritchie Torres, both of New York — announced plans to introduce a bill to enhance protections for Trump, Biden and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
But while cooler rhetoric and bipartisan bonhomie generally prevails for a while, it rarely lasts.
Indeed, some prominent Republicans like Senator JD Vance of Ohio, a finalist to become Trump’s vice presidential running mate this week, blamed the violence on the rhetoric of President Joe Biden and Democrats even before the shooter was identified.
Bipartisanship didn’t last after Jan. 6 either. Republican leaders initially backed an independent commission to investigate the storming of the building by Trump supporters but later rejected it. Trump has called those arrested on Jan. 6 “hostages” and suggested he would pardon them if elected president again.
Giffords, who returned to the Capitol months after her shooting to an emotional standing ovation, later would leave Congress to start a gun control organization; her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, is now a Democratic senator from Arizona.
“Political violence is terrifying. I know,” she posted on X. “I’m holding former President Trump, and all those affected by today’s indefensible act of violence in my heart.”
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
