FOX Business host Larry Kudlow discusses the WHCA Dinner shooting and its aftermath on 'Kudlow.'
Even President Trump's staunchest critics have to acknowledge his grace and courage under fire. He also showed it in his paper on Saturday night after the shooting at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.
If I may borrow from my friend Miranda Devine, she praised the President of the Journalists Association, who has been a staunch critic of Trump. He was very happy with the Secret Service, even though they will have to answer some tough questions in the coming weeks. And he was kidding himself about the chances that the shooter would be looking for him. He said: “It's always a shock when something like this happens. It happened to me a little bit. And, that doesn't change the fact that we're sitting next to each other.” Mr. Trump added that “if you take presidents, it's 5.8 percent and about 8 percent are fired. So nobody told me that this job is so dangerous.” He concluded: “It's dangerous. It's dangerous, whether it's here or somewhere else. No country is immune.”
That's grace under fire. Standing in his formal clothes, with a bow tie, the president holds an unusual news conference. A tip to my friends at the New York Sun for pointing this out.
It appeared to be the third assassination attempt in two years. No president has ever faced that. My previous boss, President Reagan was almost killed by an assassin's bullet in 1981. And as far as I know, there were no more assassination attempts until Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, discusses growing concerns about political violence following the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner shooting at 'Kudlow.'
Mr. Trump also had an idea about this. Listen: “Well, you know, I've read about assassinations, and I have to tell you, the people who have the most influence, the people who do the most. Look at the people. Abraham Lincoln.” However, he added, “the people who do the most, the people who make the biggest impact, are the ones who follow them.”
Faith Bottum of the Wall Street Journal editorial page notes that 8.5 percent of Presidents have died by assassination. Mr. Trump has said repeatedly, including during his press conference Saturday night, that he was not concerned about the assassination and actually wanted the dinner to go ahead that night before the Secret Service made a decision. However, that president has repeatedly said that he will not allow the criminal class or political intellectuals to shut down freedom of speech, or any political gatherings for that matter. And then he wanted to do the writer's dinner again in 30 days, whenever possible.
By the way, a tip to Ms. Bottum for calling Mr. Trump brave and courageous. The editorial page of the respected Journal was very harsh and critical of Mr. Trump. The president called for unity and it's a good idea, but somehow at this point in our history it doesn't seem realistic.
In my lifetime I saw the assassination of JFK and then Martin Luther King and then Senator Robert F. Kennedy. These were the great disasters of the world. There was an assassination attempt on President Ford in 1975. Then there was the Reagan effort in 1981 and several attempts at Mr. I don't know what happened to my beloved country. I know America can do better. Let's hope it happens.
