Americans have experienced four presidential assassinations in our 248-year history, as well as a number of other political assassinations & attempted assassinations.
Republican President Abraham Lincoln was shot & killed by Confederacy supporter & actor John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theatre in Washington DC on April 15, 1865, just days after he was sworn in for his second term. Twelve days later Booth was shot & killed by law enforcement at the farm where he was hiding.
Republican President James A. Garfield was shot & killed by Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station in Washington DC, on July 2, 1881, just four months into his presidency. In 1875 Guiteau’s family believed him to be insane and tried to have him committed; however, he had escaped. Guiteau was convicted of murder and executed in 1882.
Republican President William McKinley was shot twice & killed by anarchist^ Leon Czolgosz on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, on September 6, 1901, six months into his second term. Czolgosz was convicted and executed the following year.
Republican & Presidential Candidate Theodore Roosevelt, a former president running on a third party ticket, was shot by John Schrank on October 14, 1912. Teddy was in a convertible automobile headed to a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the time he was shot and wounded. He continued to the rally, gave his speech and sought medical treatment later that day. The judge deemed Schrank to be too insane to stand trial and was committed to an institution. Teddy carried the bullet in his chest muscle the rest of his life because doctors deemed it too dangerous to try to remove it. Schrank was judged too insane for trial and was committed to an institution.
Democrat President John F. Kennedy was shot & killed by Communist Lee Harvey Oswald while JFK was riding in a convertible in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was shot and killed three days later by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas Police Station, the first murder ever seen live on TV.
Republican & Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot & killed by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968 while he stood on the second-floor balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Ray was convicted of murder and spent the rest of his life in prison. Ray’s motive was never revealed as he claimed innocence for the rest of his life.
Democrat Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. was shot multiple times by Sirhan Sirhan on June 5, 1968 while he was walking through the kitchen at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, as he was exiting after meeting with supporters. They were celebrating his victories in the California and South Dakota Democrat primaries. He died the next day. Sirhan was a Palestinian who held strong anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic beliefs. He testified in 1969 that he killed Kennedy “with 20 years of malice aforethought” because he disapproved of Kennedy’s views on Israel and Palestine. He was convicted of capital murder and is still in prison at age 80.
Democrat Presidential Candidate George Wallace was shot four times by Arthur Bremer on May 15, 1972 while campaigning at the Laurel Shopping Center in Laurel, Maryland. Wallace was hit in the abdomen & chest, and one of the bullets lodged in Wallace’s spinal column, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. This assassination attempt ended his campaign.
Bremer’s diary, An Assassin’s Diary, published after his arrest, reveals he was motivated by a desire for fame, not by political ideology. He had considered Republican President Nixon an earlier target. He was convicted at trial and sentenced to 63 years in prison, later reduced to 53 years. Bremer served 35 years and was released on parole in 2007.
Republican President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley on March 30, 1981, just two months into his first term, while he was on the sidewalk in front of the Washington DC Hilton Hotel after giving a speech. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity on charges of attempting to assassinate the president and was confined to a psychiatric facility until 2016, when he was deemed to no longer be a threat.
Republican Presidential Candidate and former President Donald J. Trump was shot by Thomas Matthews Crooks on July 13, 2024 at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Motive is still unclear because Crooks apparently left no written materials. A local law enforcement sniper killed Crooks seconds after he fired eight bullets.
DIANE’S TAKEAWAYS
All but two of these shootings of political figures were accomplished outside. All the more reason to take extra care at Trump’s outdoor rallies. Of these targeted political figures, three were Democrats and seven were Republicans. Is this statistically significant? Is this “sample” of ten large enough to draw any conclusions? Maybe yes, maybe no.
Since at least the 1950s, all political violence in America has come from The Left, not from The Right. That was a given. Democrats excuse violence as justified because this or that group of misfits & haters are unhappy. In recent years, the Democrat-promoted violence has become worse and more frequent, because it is well funded. Indeed, this year the Democrat Party has chosen as their presidential candidate a person who openly promoted and funded the 2020 riots which killed about 50, destroyed 1000s of small businesses and caused millions of dollars in damage.
THANKSGIVING 1963 WAS MISERABLE
^Czolgosz believed in anarchism, a political philosophy adhered to by assassins of foreign leaders. He regarded McKinley as a symbol of oppression and was convinced that it was his duty as an anarchist to kill him.
The author, Diane L. Gruber, is a First Amendment advocate who writes for Substack. She calls her Substack newsletter America First Re-Ignited.
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