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submitted 4 months ago by tardigrada@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org

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Fox News contributor Juan Williams reminded his colleagues that the man who allegedly attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump was a Republican.

"I mean, it's not only when you think about the president, former President Trump, but also the people in the audience, the people who died, and you understand the danger," Williams explained during a panel discussion on Fox News Sunday. "It just makes you feel like the country is, the level of political polarization in the country is at a danger point."

"It's, I think, a reflection of the divisions within the United States today, not only liberal, conservative, but also on the extremes," he continued. "This young man, they say he's a Republican."

Williams said he found the scenario puzzling.

"The whole thing is just like, especially with the Internet, I think the Internet feeds a lot of the extremism that we're experiencing in the country, drives people," he explained. "The politics of grievance, anger, all the conspiracy theories."

[...]

Williams expected the Republican National Convention to "become a more zealous affirmation of President Trump as a martyr for having been shot at, and I think it's going to change the whole tone."

The FBI has identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. Although a motive for the assassination attempt was unclear, Pennsylvania voter records listed a person with his name and address as a Republican [...]

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[-] Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org 2 points 4 months ago

Haha, yeah. I have thought that every time you hear, "the motive is unclear.".

I guess to be fair, he could have also just been crazy. Or something. But Occam's Razor comes to mind.

[-] JillyB@beehaw.org 8 points 4 months ago

Reagan's shooter did it to try to impress an actress. Shinzo Abe's shooter didn't like a specific church that Abe had ties to. Teddy Roosevelt's shooter thought the ghost of William McKinley told him to do it. Not all assassins have straightforward or obvious motives.

[-] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 11 points 4 months ago

I mean, Abe's shooter seemed to have more straightforward motivations: Abe propped up that specific church, and that specific church ruined his family.

At least, from what I've understood from English language news articles in the headlines around the time it happened.

[-] Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah exactly this. Can't speculate, impossible to tell really.

this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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