Former President Donald Trump fell to the ground on Saturday (13), holding his face after what appeared to be a shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania, in the United States.
You could see blood on his face as he was led away by the Secret Service.
Several presidents, former presidents and presidential candidates have been attacked in U.S. history, according to a 2011 CNN report and a list of political violence cases that includes attacks on senators, congressmen and governors compiled by CNN’s research library.
Politicians who survived assassination attempts
In the pre-Civil War era, President Andrew Jackson was shot while attending a funeral at the Capitol. The shooter fired twice, but the gun misfired.
Former President Theodore Roosevelt, like Trump, was trying to reclaim his former office during the 1912 campaign when he was shot in Milwaukee. He was attacked by a bar owner on his way to a speech. Roosevelt later said that a folded copy of his 50-page speech slowed the bullet, which remained in his body for the rest of his life. He delivered the speech despite the gunshot.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was president-elect when a would-be assassin shot him in Miami in 1933. The shooter, Guiseppe Zangara, missed Roosevelt but killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. The assailant was killed by electrocution.
Harry Truman, who assumed the presidency after Roosevelt’s death, was shot in front of the White House by Puerto Rican nationalists in 1950.
Alabama Governor George Wallace, a segregationist who was running for president for the third time in 1972, was shot after a campaign event outside Washington, D.C. The shooting left him paralyzed from the waist down, and he later reconsidered his politics.
Gerald Ford faced two assassination attempts in quick succession in 1975. Lynette “Sqeaky” Fromme, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson, was thwarted before she could shoot Ford in Sacramento, California. Weeks later, a woman named Sara Jane Moore shot at Ford in San Francisco but missed because a bystander grabbed her.
Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 outside the Hilton in Washington, D.C., after delivering a speech. His press secretary, James Brady, was critically wounded and later became a gun control activist. Reagan’s shooter, John Hinckley, spent decades in a mental institution. He was released from court supervision in 2022.
An Idaho man has been charged with attempting to assassinate Barack Obama when he opened fire on the White House in 2011.
All presidents face threats, and all former presidents also receive lifetime protection from the Secret Service.
Four US presidents have been shot dead
Abraham Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated. He was shot in the back of the head in 1865 during an appearance at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., by John Wilkes Booth. He was an actor in the play that night and a Southern sympathizer. Booth fled the scene and was shot and captured weeks later in Virginia.
James Garfield was shot at a Washington, D.C., train station in July 1881. He died of his injuries months later in September in New Jersey. Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled former supporter with mental illness who was angry at his failure to get a job in Garfield’s administration. Guiteau was convicted and hanged later that year.
William McKinley was shot in September 1901 in Buffalo, New York, by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist. McKinley was making an appearance at the Pan-American Exposition. He remained in Buffalo for days before dying of his injuries. Czolgosz was later electrocuted.
John F. Kennedy was killed by a sniper, Lee Harvey Oswald, in Dallas in November 1963 while being driven along a parade route in an open-top limousine. Oswald, a Soviet sympathizer, was arrested days after the shooting. Oswald was shot dead by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas police station.
JFK’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy, was a senator from New York when he ran for president in 1968. RFK was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night he won the California Democratic primary. His killer, Sirhan Sirhan, is still in prison in California and was recently denied parole. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is running as an independent candidate for president this year.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
