Presidential historian weighs in on Trump’s attempted assassination

DALLAS, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Following Saturday’s shooting, former President Trump is now the 11th president to have an assassination attempt on their life.

March 30th, 1981, was the last time an attempted assassination was taken on President Ronald Reagan.

28/22 News sat down with presidential historian Larry Cook in Luzerne County about how Saturday’s tragedy will go down in history.

“That very nearly was an assassination and not just an attempt. He came much closer to passing away from that bullet than we initially knew,” Cook said.

Fast forward to July 13th, 2024, when President Donald Trump took cover after a shooting broke out during his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The former president sustained an injury to his ear. Meanwhile, one spectator died, two others were injured , and the gunman was killed .

“Throughout our American history, we’ve had 11 presidents that have had significant assassination attempts on their lives and you know up until Saturday evening, that was ten,” Cook said.

“Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 was a former President, who was trying to regain the White House, he was running on a third party ticket, the Bull Moose Party, and he was campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin when an assailant appeared out of the crowd and fired a bullet into the former president’s chest.”

Milwaukee is also relevant in the news this week as President Trump arrived in Milwaukee on Sunday for the Republican National Convention following the shooting on Saturday.

“People will be talking about this you know, 20, 50, 100 years from now and well beyond that,” said Cook.

Cook says experiencing something of this magnitude represents how we’re living through history and Americans need to keep all victims in mind.

“We have to keep them in our thoughts and prayers and know that this really affects the entire country. You know an attack on one of our leaders, our former leaders, is really an attack on all of us. An attack on our country, an attack on our freedoms, and democracy,” he added.

Cook will be hosting a program on Monday night at the Hoyt Library in Kingston about the Secret Service and his experience working with the agency.

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