8 Days in July

The inevitable movie or documentary about the truly insane week (plus a day) we just had as a country could aptly be titled "8 Days in July." On Saturday, July 13, former President Donald Trump was shot in the ear in a failed assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Just over a week later, President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy for the 2024 Presidential Election after weeks of rumor and speculation. Each of these events on its own is rare and significant, but the fact that they happened eight days apart is astonishing. 

The last time a president, former president, or presidential candidate was shot was in March 1981 when John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan in an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster. President Reagan was critically injured and was said to be close to death before undergoing surgery and stabilizing. While former President Trump was not critically injured, he appears to have escaped death by the slimmest of margins. 

The last time an incumbent president called off his campaign in an election year was in 1968 when Lyndon B. Johnson dropped out in March, five months ahead of the Democratic National Convention. Johnson’s departure marked only the second time an incumbent president dropped out in an election year after Harry Truman became the first in March of 1952. Biden’s withdrawal comes much later in the election cycle, with the convention less than a month away.

Without even discussing the criminal level of incompetence by the Secret Service, the growing angst that the deep state may have been involved in the assassination attempt, or the full-on coup in the Democratic Party that stripped Biden of the nomination, it seems that few really appreciate the historical significance of the times we’re living in. Sure, the 24-hour news cycle has covered both events non-stop, but the average American seems unaffected if not uninterested in these historic events. Outside of media commentators and political social media circles, the world has kept turning after what I would argue are the two most significant US political events since the Iraq War and 9/11.

Maybe we’re so desensitized to violence at this point that another shooting doesn’t register regardless of the target. Maybe the average American is so fed up with partisan politics that the nominees are interchangeable. Whatever the reason, we’re truly seeing history unfold leading up to the 2024 Presidential Election.