Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Allan Lichtman: Presidential historian on the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump

Transcript

Allan Lichtman: Presidential historian on the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Trump, as you will know by now, has been shot
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: in an assassination attempt, the first on a current or
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: former president since nineteen eighty one, when Ronald Reagan was
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: shot just two months after being sworn in the government.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Has been identified as twenty year old Thomas Crooks. He
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: was shot dead on site. US President Joe Biden has
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: spoken to Trump, and Biden's campaign has suspended all attack
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: ads following the attempted assassination. Joining me now from California
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: is US presidential historian Alan Lightman. Alan, thank you very
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: much for being with me. What generally happens? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: there have been lots of attempts and some of them
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: successful in the past. What generally happens after something like this?
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Is there more bloodshed? Does the temperature go up even further?
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I think we may have lost Allan there. We'll come
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: back to him, Alan, can you hear me? Okay? I'm
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: just asking what generally happens after an attempt like this?
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, As I said, political violence has been endemic in
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: modern America. You know, seven years ago, Republican Representative Scalise
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: was shot. More recently, there was this horrific hammer attack
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: on the husband of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: The attacker was trying to kill Pelosi. And of course,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: the worst example of recent political violence was perpetrated by
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  Speaker 2: Donald Trump himself, inciting the January sixth insurrection, sitting for
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: three hours and letting the mayhem take place, ignoring his
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: own supporters telling him to stop inciting the rioters by
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  Speaker 2: an inflammatory tweet about Vice President Mike Pence when they
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: were shouting hanging Mike Pence. The violence resulted in injuries
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: to more than one hundred and forty police officers and
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  Speaker 2: several direct or indirect deaths. Now, the question is will
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: this attempt further polarize the country or can it possibly
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: bring us together? There is a positive model. You mentioned
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  Speaker 2: the shooting of Ronald Reagan in nineteen eighty one. His
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: press secretary, a staunch conservative Republican, James Brady, was grievously wounded.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Instead of seeking revenge or attacking his political opponents, he
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  Speaker 2: formed the Brady Campaign for Gun Control and for a
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  Speaker 2: while brought the country together in an effort to stop
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  Speaker 2: the epidemic of gun violence in America. We got the
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: assault weapons ban, which sadly has been suspended, and by
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: the way, The weapon that was used in this assassination
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: attempt and the killing of an attendee was an assault weapon.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: We got the Brady Bill on background checks, but unfortunately
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  Speaker 2: there's been no progress since then. And could we now
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  Speaker 2: come together and stopping gun violence, which is a major
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  Speaker 2: course of the deaths of our children. An American overall
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  Speaker 2: is twenty times, not twenty percent, twenty times more likely
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  Speaker 2: to be killed murdered by a gun than residents of
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  Speaker 2: our closest pure countries, which also have mental health and
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: drug problems. The difference is guns. Can we replicate what
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  Speaker 2: James Brady did?
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  Speaker 1: Ellen The October poll by the Public Religion Research Institute
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  Speaker 1: and the Brookings Institution found that one in four Americans
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  Speaker 1: agreed with this sentence, true American patriots may have to
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  Speaker 1: resort to violence in order to save our country. So
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: that was thirteen percent of Democratic voters and thirty three
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: percent of Republicans who agreed with that. How do you
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: navigate an election cycle when you've got people with such
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  Speaker 1: extreme views.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: It's very sad, and that's why we have so much
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: endemic political violence. And the only answer is to do
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: what James Brady did. Organized, organized, persuaded vote for those
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  Speaker 2: who are willing to deal with gun violence. It's a
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: very difficult issue because the gun lobby, the gun manufacturers
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: have a death grip on so many of our politicians.
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  Speaker 2: But if the movement gains momentum as well, it should
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  Speaker 2: because the majority of Americans, how overwhelming majority of Americans
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: believe in reasonable gun control. So if you can get
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: a political movement going, I wrote a whole book about
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  Speaker 2: this repeal the Second Amendment, the Case for a Safe
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: for America. We're not going to get a repeal of
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: the Second Amendment. But if we get a movement going,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: that's how change occurs. That's how you've got the great
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: civil rights initiatives of the nineteen sixties.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: For example, Allan, thank you very much for your time
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: this morning. That is out of California, US presidential historian
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Alan Lightman. The time is for more from News Talks
• 5:09
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• 5:12
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• 5:15
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