On Sunday, Donald Trump was subjected to another assassination attempt.
Yesterday’s event shows that the threat level is high and that violence has become “normal” in the ongoing election campaign, writes TV4 Nyhetern’s Lisa Grenfors.
There are less than fifty days left until the presidential election in the United States and Donald Trump has been subjected to two (suspected) assassination attempts. The motives are certainly unknown, but it is safe to say that violence is part of the election campaign. If it then concerns political violence, it requires more information about the motives. Hopefully we will know more about this after the questioning of the suspect who was found with a gun at Donald Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach.
In the case of the murder in Butler, Pennsylvania, this summer, the perpetrator was shot and killed, and we will not learn why he shot at Trump so that the former president suffered an injury to his right ear. Or rather: narrowly escaped death.
Violence is “normal” in this election campaign
Both President Biden and Kamala Harris have come out with condemnations of the violence. But behind the condemnations lies another reality that is not quite pronounced. After guns were pointed at one of the presidential candidates on two occasions, perhaps one thing must be stated: violence is somewhat “normal” in this election campaign.
It’s a scary thought, but the Secret Service has already warned that the threat level is high. It was repeated at the press conference last night.
This time, the Secret Service appears to have acted more professionally than in the Pennsylvania shooting that led to the chief’s resignation and a congressional investigation.
But there is clearly a lack of trust in the system. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (rep) has tweeted that the state will investigate the incident on the golf course and writes that people deserve to know how a man could get 450 meters from Trump. The governor seems to suggest that it is safest if the investigation is done in the state.
Increasingly difficult to feel trust in the state
This is perhaps precisely where the really big danger lies, namely suspicions that the federal police, the FBI, and indeed the state, are actually unable to investigate the violence as it should in a rule of law.
Because it is when violence occurs that it is particularly important that people in a democracy can feel trust in the system. But in the United States it seems to be increasingly difficult after several years with Donald Trump who constantly questioned the system and thus the functions that must work, namely everything from police investigations to the counting of votes in presidential elections.