Austin’s Daily Commentary – Assassination Attempt On Trump
Austin reflects on the shooting of Ronald Reagan and how different it was compared to the assassination attempt on Trump this past weekend. Transcript: Austin: I remember the day like it…
BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA – JULY 13: Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Butler Farm Show Inc. on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Shortly after, shots rang out and Trump slumped before being whisked away by Secret Service with injuries visible to the side of his head. Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger said the shooter and one audience member are dead and another was injured. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
Austin reflects on the shooting of Ronald Reagan and how different it was compared to the assassination attempt on Trump this past weekend.
Transcript:
Austin: I remember the day like it was yesterday. 1981. 15 years old, home from school with a stomach virus or something. Whatever it was, I was pretty much over it by the time the word came down that afternoon that Ronald Reagan had been shot. The days before the internet, of course, I reached out to my parents, called them both at work, called my grandparents, I think my Aunt Jewel as well. And we all sat back and watched the coverage on television. Some listened on radio.
I remember Frank Reynolds impassioned pleas to his colleagues at ABC to get the story straight. They erroneously reported once or twice that Reagan's wounds had been fatal. Again, it was quite an afternoon.
I watched the look on the face of my own 15-year-old son Saturday, as word came down about President Trump's shooting, and I can imagine he was feeling many of the same emotions that I was. Again, the exact same age, 15 years old.
Something incredibly different, though, about 1981 and 2024. In 1981, we came together as a nation immediately. Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative. We were offended. We were angry. Someone shot our president.
That happened. Or that lasted maybe for about five minutes Saturday. And then we went right back to the rhetoric. We went right back to the partisan bickering that we've seen so much in recent years. We're not political opponents now. We're on the side of good versus evil. Now it's heaven and hell. One side is completely right, the other side is completely wrong. And we've got to get over this.
I've said for many, many years my political opponents are merely mistaken. They are not evil. I'm not hearing that from the other side, though, and it is time that we really work on correcting this misnomer. This is not America, not the America that we grew up knowing, not the America that we need to be.
Our political opponents are not the devil. The other side of the token is not hell. These are our neighbors. These are our friends, and we need to work through this. And that's the comment I'm Austin Rhodes 95.1 FM News Talk WGAC. [00:00:00][0.0]
