Berlin. Former President Donald Trump isn’t the first politician to be targeted — and barely survive. A look at history.
Covered in blood and supported by a few Secret Service agents, Donald Trump raises his fist to the sky. A grazing shot had this US Presidential Candidates previously shot in the ear. It is now certain that 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks intended to kill Trump. The attack was unsuccessful, but the events remind many observers in the US of the attack on Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.
Capital Inside by Jörg Quoos, Editor-in-Chief of the FUNKE Central Editorial Team
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At that time, like Trump, Roosevelt was no longer president, but he ran as a candidate. Because he was dissatisfied with the policies of the current US president, Taft, and the republicanIn 1912, Roosevelt did not nominate him, but instead re-nominated him, and ran for the Progressive Party, newly founded on his initiative. Roosevelt was shot in the chest on October 14, 1912, on the street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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The ball only gave Roosevelt one superficial wound also – also because the shot was reportedly muffled by an eyeglass case and a folded manuscript. Roosevelt still delivered the speech planned for that night, but he did not win the presidential election. He lost to Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic Party candidate. The shooter, John F. Schrank, later claimed that he wanted to use the assassination attempt to prevent Roosevelt from winning a third term.
Reagan was seriously wounded by gunmen – and was re-elected
Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt while serving as President of the United States in 1981. The Republican was shot in the US capital, Washington, in March 1981. At that point, he had been in office for just over two months. I just had Reagan delivered a speech at the Washington Hilton Hotel to the US trade union federation AFL-CIO. After his appearance, the US President, along with Secret Service agents, walked out onto the street where camera crews and onlookers waited.
Then a man pulled out a revolver and fired. A ricochet hit Reagan under the left armpit, which no one noticed at first. In the end, he narrowly escaped death. Reagan lost a lot of blood and had to have emergency surgery. He then returned to the Oval Office with surprising speed and rode a wave of popularity. 26 days after nearly bleeding to death, he chaired another cabinet meeting. After the attack, the Reagans rose Popularity ratings clearly. In 1984 he was reelected with a landslide result.
In Europe, the Slovak Prime Minister narrowly escaped death in May
Politicians who have been involved in recent decades Target The ones that have been and survived are not only found in the US. It was only in May this year that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico narrowly escaped death. A 71-year-old man fired four shots at him. Fico was seriously injured. “The head of government escaped death by a hair’s breadth, it would have been enough if the bullet wound or several bullet wounds had been a few centimeters further away, and perhaps we will have to talk about completely different things today,” Slovak President Peter Pelegrini said later.
Assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Fico: Back on duty after a few weeks.
© Alliance image / Xinhua News Agency | News Agency of the Slovak Republic
After his return, things are going well for Fico. The same Pellegrini that Fico publicly supported is now sitting in the presidential palace. A public media institution has been dissolved, cultural policy has been politicized, and a controversial judicial reform by Fico has been given the green light. Government seems stable.
Reker and Schäuble: Two German politicians with incredible careers
Prominent politicians who survived the attacks against them are also well-known in Germany. Henriette Reker, for example. Reker, then a candidate for the office of mayor in Cologne, was attacked and seriously injured by a right-wing extremist assassin in the final phase of the 2015 election campaign. The perpetrator later said he wanted to create a climate of fear. Henriette Reker then won the election and was re-elected to office in 2020. “It made me stronger and more determined,” Reker once told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
CDU politician Wolfgang Schäuble remained paralyzed after the assassination attempt on him, but still had an incredible political career.
© image alliance / dpa | Norbert Försterling
Also German politician was the victim of an assassination attempt. On October 12, 1990, a mentally ill man shot the then Federal Minister of the Interior. Since then, Schäuble has been paralyzed. After his recovery, he decided to continue his political work and had a long political career. Among other things, he was Federal Minister of Finance for eight years from 2009. In 2017, at the age of 75 and as the longest-serving member of parliament, he became President of the Bundestag.
Historically, Germany’s most famous failed assassination attempt is that of Adolf Hitler. On July 20, 1944, Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg’s plan failed at the Führer’s headquarters.Wolf’s Denin East Prussia to kill the leader of Nazi Germany. Hitler was only slightly injured. It was not until the following year that the Allies managed to liberate Europe from the National Socialists.