Wyoming Delegation Hopes America Will Come Together After Assassination Attempt

When the 9/11 attacks shook America, for at least a few months after there was a semblance of increased unity in the United States.

Wyoming Senators John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis and Congresswoman Harriet Hageman hope that Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump will result in a similar kind of awakening to the violent political rhetoric and division ravaging this country.

“I think that this could be something that gives us all pause and causes us to unite,” Lummis said. “This is hopefully the kind of event that will cause the country to unite instead of to divide.”

Lummis said was also encouraged by Trump’s reaction to the event, a response which she said has been responsible, courageous and calm.

“All is indicative of someone who is capable of leading in a very resolute manner,” she said.

Hageman said she’s horrified and angry about Saturday’s event, but not surprised. She herself has been confronted on the streets of Washington, D.C before for her political beliefs.

“When you’ve got the Democrats and the media saying this guy is going to be the worst president and the most destructive president and the most fascist president we’ve ever had, you’re going to create this kind of environment,” she said.

Portrayals

Barrasso said the villainization of Trump was a direct contributor to Saturday’s attack. Lummis and Hageman mentioned the recent cover of The New Republic, which featured Trump’s face superimposed as Adolph Hitler.

“We have to be more conscious of the fact that there are just deranged people out there, who when they see something that incendiary or hear rhetoric that is extremely incendiary, they can be called by it to act,” Lummis said. “That kind of incendiary communications is potentially life threatening to people who are willing to run for public office.”

Hageman believes portrayals and demonization such as the The New Republic cover lead people who may be unstable mentally to believe they need to save humanity and serve as a tool of fear mongering. 

Although she doesn’t find them to be fascists, she believes Democrats have acted much more similarly to this political movement with their behavior.

“If you want to talk fascism, facism is taking away people’s freedoms and liberties and preventing them from being able to speak, which is exactly what the Democrats have been doing,” Hageman said. “When you attack someone as the coming antichrist, you are going to encourage people like this young man to try and go be a hero.”

Although Hageman said only Democrats are fixated on personalities, dangerous and violent rhetoric has frequently been used by members of both parties on social media, and particularly since Saturday. 

Wyoming Messages

Barrasso told Cowboy State Daily that he received a text message from Trump just about 90 minutes before shots rang out on the former president at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally. Trump had sent Barrasso a photo the two had taken together at the Capitol.

After the shooting, Barrasso sent a message to one of Trump’s assistants to tell the former president that the people of Wyoming are standing with him.

Authorities are still searching for a motive behind alleged suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks’ attack on the president. Crooks killed one man in the attack and critically injured two others besides Trump.

Crooks was a registered Republican and showed no signs on social media that he would launch his violent attack with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

When reached by Cowboy State Daily on Sunday, Hageman had just landed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention where Trump will speak later this week. Barrasso will also be in attendance at the event.

When attending a rodeo in Casper on Saturday night, Barrasso said many people approached him and asked how Trump was doing. It was a similar message given by Gov. Mark Gordon, who also reached out to Barrasso.

“Certainly the people of Wyoming feel gratitude that Trump is doing well, recognize his leadership as a warrior, a guy that doesn’t give up,” Barrasso said. “He’s going to continue fighting for all of us.”

Trump has presented himself as in good health after the shooting and said on a post Truth Social that a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear. On Sunday, he was seen golfing. 

For The Race

Historically, the public approval rating of politicians who have been shot or shot at increases immediately afterwards. Trump was already leading in the polls before President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate in June, a lead that grew much bigger after that event.

The race between Biden and Trump was already punctured by charged rhetoric and radicalized views on both sides, riddled with exaggerations and lies that are amplified on social media. 

“Hateful rhetoric leads to hateful actions,” Barrasso said. 

It would be difficult to argue that Saturday’s assassination won’t help the Trump campaign. The shot of Trump, bloodied and just millimeters away from being killed, yet still pumping his fist at the crowd in Pennsylvania, is an image that will likely stay entrenched in the minds of many Americans for months to come. 

Lummis said the event single handedly proved to voters that Trump has the capacity to lead the country again.

Barrasso said he’s fully committed to supporting Trump’s campaign and will be actively working to help him get reelected.

“He has an iron-clad resolve,” Barrasso said. “He’s courageous, he’s unafraid and he puts America first.”

Comparisons

For many, the shooting brought back memories of a wave of assassinations that roiled American life throughout the 1960s and 70s. These attacks included the killings of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and attempted assassinations of former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. 

“It just seemed every year or every few years we were going through this gut punch,” Lummis said. “I felt that way yesterday. It was kind of a shot in the heart of the American people.”

Barrasso said he still remembers where he was doing his surgical residency when he found out about Reagan getting shot in 1981. He said this event was a little different than the Trump shooting however as Reagan was seriously injured in the shooting and it was not immediately clear if he would survive it. Also, this event took place long before the age of internet news and social media, leading to much longer delays in the delivery of new updates.

“When something dramatic goes on like that and you don’t know, that adds a whole additional level of anxiety,” Barrasso said.

Hageman said it’s unacceptable that Crooks was able to get his shots off on Saturday. She wants Kimberly Cheatle, director of the U.S. Secret Service, fired for this event and that “heads should roll” as a result of an investigation into the incident. 

“If they needed backups or if they need additional people or screenings, they should have had it,” Hageman said. “We have the right to see our political leaders and not have somebody not take a shot at him.”

She also said it proves that Trump needs more Secret Service support and that Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, who has been denied protection, deserves it to.

“In light of what happened to his uncle, in light of what happened to his father, in light of what his name is and the fact he has taken on the radical Biden regime, he absolutely is entitled to Secret Service protections,” Hageman said.

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.