United States Presidential Election 2024

[BritDownUnder]

Yes if he is like this now then what will he be like in four years. My own father who is 94 years old has become paranoid and quite simply mad in the last few years, according to other members of my family.

I view Biden as a British-hating Irish nationalist rather than a US President. The fact that the Democrats have no viable white Male candidate who will be required to peel away the Trump base speaks volumes. The Democrats, are if anything, even worse than the UK Conservative Party in terms of political savvy. Their attitude is simply if we don't get enough votes then we allow enough illegal immigrants into the country and naturalise them until we do. It's a suicide strategy.

Looks like the donors will stop giving until he can't campaign and gets replaced.

I have serious doubts about Harris's intelligence.

[adam2]

TRUMP SHOT ! Not seriously hurt, but any shooting of a candidate for president is a serious attack on democracy.
Details from news media of your choice.

[Ralphw2]

Not clear if Trump was hit or just splattered by another's blood. Reports of two dead, one being the gunman.

I fear this will raise Trump's chances of election and, if elected, he will use it as an excuse for a serious crackdown on civil liberties, mostly involving yet more guns.

Biden or his replacement will now be in greater danger

I believe if Trump had been killed many thousands of his supporters would have retaliated with lethal violence by now. If Trump does not explicitly tell his supporters to put away their guns, I fear many will retaliate anyway.

[clv101]

Can't say I'm surprised there's been an assassination attempt but I am surprised that a shooter could (a) get so close and then (b) miss! The secret service have some serious questions to answer!

Of course this whole incident will now be completely consumed by conspiracy and misinformation. Beware anything you read or see about it!

[UndercoverElephant]

We may not have so many guns as the US, but we have a very similar cultural problem -- people have forgotten how to disagree rationally, and that applies especially to the left. Too many people on the left have come to believe that certain viewpoints are to be deemed so "dangerous to society" that it justifies not only "deplatforming" but much more. It has become acceptable for many on the left to believe that their political opponents should be silenced at any cost. The reason for this is that leftist ideology views the right as evil, whereas most people on the right view the left as merely idealistic and delusional. There is much more willingness on the right to accept that freedom of speech is essential, including for their political opponents.

I am not saying there is no problem on the right -- there are elements on the extreme right who are so afraid of what they view as existential threats to either "the white race" or European/Christian civilisation that they believe violence and intimidation are justified. The difference is that nobody defends or turns a blind eye to those right wing extremists. As Farage pointed out this morning -- Jo Brand is still allowed to appear on the BBC regardless of making a joke about how instead of throwing milkshake over Farage, somebody should throw battery acid over him. Ha ha ha ha! It's Farage, after all. He's on the right, so that sort of humour is just about acceptable.

As usual, social media is a central part of the problem. Far too many legitimate debates are shut down in the name of "keeping our communities safe". As well as creating massive echo chambers where people don't have to learn to think rationally and actually defend their views in open debate, this also re-enforces the idea that certain views are so unacceptable that is reasonable to silence anybody who holds them. And it has now got so bad that unacceptable views include basic facts about reality.

[BritDownUnder]

The shooter was 150 metres away. I used to target a British Telecom post with a little box on top of it about 30 metres away and could hit it quite reliably with my air gun. I could also hit a transformer on a double post about 150 metres away. It's not that easy and the shooter only just missed, a thing that would have truly changed history. We were 10cm away from a very big historical change that the US may not have recovered from.

I would like to see the full history of the shooter.

[Ralphw2]

The video I saw seemed to show that a police sniper spotted the shooter a fraction of a second before he fired, and shot the assassin within a second, so full marks to that marksman.

In a country with so many guns and so many people of all political views who say they are prepared to resort to violence to 'defend democracy', it was only a matter of time before someone got this close.

One comment from an analyst. As soon as the news spread, a lot of Telegram users on the far right immediately started deleting their own posts, suggesting that they have a pre-prepared policy to delete evidence in situations where one of their own might have been involved. (Not that I have any reason to think it was a far right plot).

The shooter was registered as a Republican supporter.

[adam2]

In related news, the legal case against Trump for the improper retention and storage of classified paperwork has been thrown out.

[Ralphw2]

It is now really hard to imagine Trump not winning in November. I do not think 2025 will be a good year for the world.

[invalid]

Some people would be Happy with fewer of the forever wars.

[adam2]

Security for Trump "increased after Iranian plot to kill him" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cml2w8knjryo

[mr brightside]

The shooter was 150 metres away. I used to target a British Telecom post with a little box on top of it about 30 metres away and could hit it quite reliably with my air gun. I could also hit a transformer on a double post about 150 metres away. It's not that easy and the shooter only just missed, a thing that would have truly changed history. We were 10cm away from a very big historical change that the US may not have recovered from.

I would like to see the full history of the shooter.

I blame lack of parallax compensation in the rifle scope, at that distance you'd need it.

[clv101]

If nothing else dramatic happens in the next few months, Trump's winning this. The ball's the the Democrat's court, the 'dramatic' thing they could do is drop Biden and put up a new candidate. It's a high risk strategy, and will likely fail, but sticking with Biden all but guarantees failure whereas a new candidate might just cut through. Trump is far from unbeatable with a half decent opposition candidate - they've likely left it too late though.

[adam2]

Biden has been tested positive for covid, which may increase concerns as to his physical health.

[Ralphw2]

He said he would quit if he had a medical problem. This COVIDs infection may be diplomatic as yet more senior democrats call for him to go . At least it seems very good timing.

It seems the Trump shooter was spotted by secret service using a range finder an hour before, but was lost in the crowd. The whole operation was poorly coordinated, and I think the service chief will lose her job.

Trumps choice of VP is an even more scary prospect than Trump, if Trump was somehow out of the race or won and then incapacitated.