Donald Trump Attack: A Look At US Presidents And Presidential Candidates Assassinated, Targeted

(MENAFN- AsiaNet News) Shots were fired during a rally speech by Donald Trump, in an incident that investigators are treating as a possible assassination attempt on the former president. This incident is not the first of its kind, several former presidents and presidential candidates have faced assassination attempts. Historically, four presidents-Abraham Lincoln, James A
Garfield, William McKinley, and John F
Kennedy-have been assassinated.
Here are some notable examples of shootings involving US presidents or presidential candidates:

1. Ronald Reagan (1981)
As he was leaving an event at the Hilton hotel in Washington, President Reagan was shot and critically injured. John Hinckley Jr., the assailant, was released from prison without conditions in 2022. Reagan was hospitalised for a total of twelve days. Reagan's popularity increased after the tragedy because he recovered from his injuries with humour and resiliency.

2.
George Wallace (1972)
At a Laurel, Maryland, mall, Wallace was shot four times while running for the Democratic presidential nomination, leaving him permanently paralysed. Wallace was well-known for his populist appeal and segregationist ideas, and the attempt on his life brought attention to the political unrest that persisted in the US during the Vietnam War era as well as the possibility of domestic violence.

3. Robert F Kennedy (1968)
Robert Kennedy, the brother of President John F. Kennedy, was shot and murdered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, when he was vying for the Democratic presidential nomination. Adding to the political unrest of the late 1960s, the assassination happened barely two months after the death of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and had a significant influence on the 1968 presidential contest.

4. John F. Kennedy (1963)
Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, when he was travelling in a motorcade with his wife Jackie. In 1964, the Warren Commission, which looked into the assassination, came to the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former marine who had resided in the USSR, had done it alone. With the Vietnam War intensifying and the civil rights movement providing a backdrop, many Americans feel that the killing of John F. Kennedy signalled the start of a more violent era in US politics and society.

5. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933)
In Miami, Florida, there was an attempt on FDR's life as the incoming president. Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was slain in the attack, but he escaped unscathed.

6.
Abraham Lincoln (1865)
John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Confederate sympathiser, killed Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., while he was attending the play "Our American Cousin."

7.
Theodore Roosevelt (1912)
Like Trump, Teddy Roosevelt was running for the White House as a former president when he was shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

8.
James A Garfield (1881)
James A Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, became the second president to be assassinated just six months after taking office. On July 2, 1881, while walking through a train station in Washington to catch a train to New England, he was shot by Charles Guiteau.

9.
William McKinley (1901)
President William McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901, shortly after delivering a speech in Buffalo, New York. While greeting people in a receiving line, McKinley was shot twice in the chest at point-blank range.

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