This Week Podcast: Some Thoughts on the Assassination Attempt

{This Podcast is sponsored and published with the approval of the City-County Observer}

Podcast Transcript

I’m gonna run the risk here of sounding like a preacher. I’m not talking about one of those televangelists who raises his voice and tries to bilk you for some money. No, I’m gonna talk to you like a person who’s really concerned with the direction of our country and the fact that we need prayer. Simple as that. And lots of it. You know, we encourage that on this program quite a bit. We encourage you to join us for prayer for our city on Tuesdays at noon at the City Gate. We would love to have you here on any Tuesday at noon for prayer for the city and for the area surrounding us here, praying for the Tri-state area as well. So make some plans to join us for prayer. And we’re going to be talking about the fact that this nation needs a lot of prayer as well, especially right now.

I was so just shocked when I caught the news on Saturday night and there had been an attempt made on the life of Donald Trump. Some things have just gotten way out of hand, and we’ve got to pray for calm in this country. Pray for common sense to take over and this air of violence to be swept away.

The incident on Saturday night left Donald Trump with a wound to his ear. This was like the hand of God in this situation. Trump turned his head just a little bit. Millimeters of distance would have made all the difference in the world. And Donald Trump turned his head at just the right moment when that bullet came flying by him. It grazed that ear, and it could have been so much worse if he hadn’t turned his head or if there hadn’t been a possible need for the part of the shooter to rush his shot. It has just been an absolute miracle that Trump was not killed. But we do want to emphasize the need for prayer for the person who was killed in this incident.

Cory Comparator of Pennsylvania was the gunshot victim who was killed. He’s been labeled as a hero because he was jumping to cover up his family at the time that the shooting took place. And our heart goes out to his family. Cory was a firefighter and Christian. They said he was in church every Sunday, a good family man, and a good community member. Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro did an excellent job talking about Corey and his life. And what a shame that that life came to an end just because the guy wanted to go and support a political candidate.

What a horrible thought that that becomes the reason for somebody to lose their life simply because they want to support a particular political candidate. This is just insanity. Two other people by the way, we need to pray for two members of the audience there at the rally who were seriously injured and are recuperating. The last report I heard was that they were doing better, and we want to continue to pray for them and their family for them to just have a full and complete recovery.

There have been other assassination attempts either on presidents or presidential candidates in our lifetime. Most of us remember in 1981 when the attempt was made to assassinate Ronald Reagan. He survived the attempt. Brady was permanently injured. That was also the day that, well, the White House got mixed up on what the line of secession was for the president. When something happens to the president, and he’s incapacitated, the vice president takes over. Well, somehow, that got a little bit mixed up. And the Secretary of Defense, Alexander Haig stood up in front of the cabinet and said, “I’m in charge here.” He wasn’t in charge, at least not according to the Constitution. But that was 1981, just three months into Ronald Reagan’s first term as president of the United States. There was a lot of talk of hatred of Reagan because of conservative beliefs and the fact that he didn’t see the need for the government to have to do as much for people. The philosophy of Ronald Reagan at the time was not letting the government do for people what they can do for themselves. And there were some people who didn’t like that. 

We also lived through 1968 when Robert Kennedy was assassinated during his run for president of the United States. What a curse the Kennedy family has experienced. two or three months before that, of course, was the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, a horrible year for political violence in this country. Then in, of course, 1963 and still within my lifetime where I can remember the flags being in half-mast. I remember teachers crying, and I didn’t know exactly why. I guess I was a little too young for that, but it was because John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in  1963. Those are all within our current lifetime, at least for old geezers like me.

In our memories, by the way, keep in mind that our memories get a little fuzzy with things. For example, in the assassination of John Kennedy in Dealey Plaza, memories for some people they believed that they saw the Zabgruder film, which was the only film made

And that was not the only one, but the best-quality film of the motorcade with John F. Kennedy and the assassination. You see, that film wasn’t made public until 1975. I mean, some, a few people had seen it before that, but it was shown on network television for the very first time in 1975. Life Magazine bought the original copy of the film and they published a few frames still pictures from the film, but never released the actual film itself until after the

See a big difference there between that and what we experienced Saturday with the assassination attempt on Donald Trump because we didn’t have live coverage of any of those other attempts before. The attempted assassination of Reagan was caught on film, but the film had to be developed and they edited it. Bobby Kennedy, they had to process film in order to be able to show what happened to Bobby Kennedy as he was passing through the kitchen of a restaurant in Los Angeles. you know, same thing with Martin Luther King. was cut on film, but again, it had to be processed and edited. And with JFK, the Zabruder film took over a decade before it showed up publicly. But in the case of Trump, we had it there, and it was immediate and was… A lot of people were just absolutely glued to the coverage on their television. And a lot of things get reported on in a live situation like that, that wind up not being truth or not being factual. And they have to go back and backpedal and then come out with new facts. And that also becomes fodder for a whole lot of conspiracy theories to pop up. I saw on Saturday night, I saw where people were putting out the conspiracy theory that the whole assassination attempt was staged. That it didn’t really happen at all, that the person who died in the stands was just collateral damage from staging an assassination. That’s crazy talk.

But it shows up online. And so you’ve got to be really careful as you see things pop up in your feeds on your social media sources. Be sure to check them out before you spread those things any further because a lot of them can be total absolute misinformation. You know, we had no social media back.

Then, when other assassinations have taken place, McKinley in 1901 and Garfield in 1881, I may have those reversed, sorry. And then, of course, the first US president to be assassinated was Abraham Lincoln in 1865. And in the case of Lincoln’s assassination, there was a lot of disinformation that was spread. A lot of rumors got out of control in the moments, but they spread by word of mouth through the city of Washington, D.C. And there were a lot of things that were being spread at that point that weren’t based in truth.

We know that we were living with a very divided nation in 1865 when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. We’d just come through this huge civil war. There was a lot of division still left at the time. 

When we talk about the the 1960s with Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, we were a very divided nation in 1968, very much so, with a lot of heated rhetoric flying back and forth between different groups of people. 

And certainly there was a lot of dislike toward Ronald Reagan when he became president. I think it’s this rhetoric, and we’ve got to turn it down.

It’s okay to have strong disagreements, but what’s not okay is to get into these arguments where we turn it all personal, and we start attacking the person instead of the policy or the beliefs. When we do that, see, we’re just, man, we just dehumanize the person who is running for office. So many things said about Donald Trump. And like him or don’t like him, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the fact that there are a bunch of people who are spreading really strong hatred and spewing all kinds of unbelievable rhetoric.

But it’s not limited to Democrats or liberals spewing things at Donald Trump. Because it goes both ways. I don’t care what your political persuasion is, this goes both ways. You have people on both sides that just like wanna sling the negativity, that wanna say, in fact, I’ve heard it said of the liberals saying about Donald Trump that, he’s going to be the end of democracy. And guess what? I’ve heard a lot of conservatives say of Biden that he’s going to be the end of democracy. See, we throw the same manure back and forth all the time. It’s all right to have a spirited discussion about the issues, but when you start talking about a person is dangerous to the country. You start equating the person to Hitler. You say that they’re going to put an end to our democracy. I don’t care which party you’re a part of. If you’re spewing that stuff, you’re in the wrong.

I could go on a big time rant over this and I’m going to restrain myself. You see, we should be having those discussions about the policies and not trying to fear monger when it comes to people’s votes. And man, that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re fear mongering. We’re pushing this and making people afraid of what the future is going to be like if too many people vote for this candidate or that candidate. Well, let’s put the fear aside. Let’s have conversations. Let’s talk about smaller government. Let’s talk about the role of government. If you believe that government should do more, let’s talk about that. Let’s have a discussion.

The fact that a person thinks that the government should do less doesn’t make that person evil. It’s that that person believes that there’s a certain way the government should function. And that is with fiscal responsibility and spending less money and taking less of our tax money and so on down the line.

And for the person who believes in bigger government, it’s because they believe that government can be compassionate in getting things done, that government programs can actually help people. Well, regardless of which side of belief you’re at on that, talk about your belief and quit trying to scare people about the other candidate.

It’s okay to say this candidate believes completely differently from you or I. Here’s what he thinks. Here’s what I think.

Talk about immigration. Talk about what the government should do when it comes to people who want to enter into the United States of America. We are still the beacon. We are still the country that everybody yearns to come and be a part of. So how do we effectively deal with that?

That’s a discussion to be had, not a bunch of fear to be thrown back and forth.

We need to talk about the border. Absolutely, we do. But we’ve got to talk about it instead of screaming at each other. We should be talking about guns. We should be talking about abortion. See, those subjects shouldn’t be off the table. We should be discussing them. It’s far better to talk about those issues that are such huge hot buttons in our country, far better to talk about them than it is to call one another names, than it is to say it’s the end of democracy if this person gets elected. Discuss the issues and stop the name-calling. It’s that simple. 

And sometimes we look at it and we think that it all happens on the national level, Well, that’s not the case. It happens all the way down into state and local politics as well. Take, for example, in our state governor’s race.

Here is what Jennifer McCormick, candidate for governor, has had to say about the Republican candidates for governor being Mike Braun and Micah Beckwith for lieutenant governor. Jennifer says, “I refuse to turn Indiana over to a Braun Beckwith team. They are dangerous, extreme and embody the fear and chaos that has taken our state on a dangerous path.

You see, when you start pointing out to the other candidate and you start saying things like, they’re dangerous, then you start planting that seed with people that if this person is so dangerous, we’ve got to prevent them from getting into office at all costs. And all costs means by every means possible.

Stop throwing around words like dangerous.

They believe very differently than we believe. There’s a much better statement. Not they’re dangerous.

That just is not fitting of a person seeking public office.

Let’s keep the rhetoric down. And Jennifer McCormick, talk about the issues then. Lay those out. Talk about what you believe in and how you would steer the government of the state of Indiana in a different direction and how you think the state will be in better hands if it’s in your hands instead of saying the other party is dangerous because they are not.

But that rhetoric truly is. And it’s time for it to stop. This talk should have happened long before a bullet came whizzing by the ear of Donald Trump. Somebody should have said to you, Jennifer McCormick, long ago, Stop the rhetoric.

Talking about a person being dangerous is not campaigning for governor. Talking about the issues that’s what you do in a campaign for state governor. Now, the whole thing about rhetoric and name-calling has continued to work its way down into local politics as well. And recently, Shane Ritz.

Shane is the local Vanderburgh County Democrat Communications Director. And he was talking about Ken Colbert, who’s a conservative in Vanderburgh County. Ken has been excommunicated from the Republican Party. There are plenty of people who have negative things to say about Ken. But. Shane Ritz decided to take it to point of saying that Ken Colbert is a completely “unhinged bigot and anti-semite.”

Where are you wanting to take this? What becomes your next step once you’ve called somebody a completely unhinged bigot and anti-semite?

And what does that do to the potential for harm to that other person?

Maybe you don’t care.

I’m not here to defend Ken Colbert in any way. I’m here to say that characterizing him in that has risks associated with it. And we should stop the rhetoric and instead be focused on the stand of your party.

What does the Vanderburgh County Democrat Party stand for? What do you believe?

What’s the future you see for our community?

That’s what we need to hear from the Communications Director of the party. Not name-calling.

And then no talk about politics in the local area here would be complete without a reference to Mike Duckworth, the Republican Party chairman. Channel 25 did a story based on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. On local Republicans react to shooting at Trump rally. And we just have the audio here to be able to share with you of Michael Duckwood.

“We’ve had to have security at our last couple of events because there are people that are so into these elections. It’s like it absorbs every minute, everything that they think about and that’s fine. That’s absolutely the right. But some of them have a tendency to just take it too far and that’s what we have to prepare for.” 

The story was about local Republicans reacting to what happened to the party’s presidential candidate. Instead, the response was dealing with what he perceives as a risk to the local party.

Probably enough said on that. I don’t want to go further down that trail. Look, thank you for taking the time to join us here. Truly do appreciate that. And keep in mind that we’ll be back soon with another episode of “This Week with Johnny Kincaid.”

FOOTNOTE:  The CITY-COUNTY OBSERVER posted this podcast without editing or bias.