This is a truly extraordinary moment. It is shocking to watch. It’s hard to judge right now how it will reverberate and what the consequences for America and its fractious politics will be. But these are deeply anxious times.
The cable news networks were carrying Donald Trump‘s speech live. It had just gone 6.15pm on a hot Pennsylvania evening.
Trump shooting latest: ‘Shooter and audience member dead’
Then two pops. The former president lifts his hand to his ear. He knows by then what is going on. As he falls to the ground behind the podium, there is volley of gunfire. Then Secret Service agents are on stage, surrounding him and shielding him.
The microphone on the podium captured the chaos. “Shooters down… move, move.”
I watched it live. It wasn’t clear at that moment what condition Trump was in, hidden as he was, behind the podium.
Then he emerged, dishevelled and with a bleeding right ear. He was bundled into an armoured car and driven away.
It was a textbook Secret Service procedure. As a former president, Trump has 24/7 Secret Service protection and they train for precisely this sort of event.
The gunman is dead, as is a member of the rally audience. Two others are injured. There will now be multiple strands to this story. In the investigation – we will learn more about the gunman, his politics, his motives, how he got his gun, whether he acted alone? They are just some of the questions to be answered in an investigation now being led by the FBI.
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And then there is the impact on this country. It is so deeply divided. The election is just four months away. Already top politicians are blaming each other. The Republican National Convention – the biggest moment in the political calendar – is due to start on Monday. Donald Trump is to be “crowned” the Republican Party’s candidate for president at that event.
Will it go ahead? I can’t imagine they would cancel it, unless there is an ongoing threat to Mr Trump. But it will now take on a very different tone.
America was already bracing for this election. The tension just became significantly greater.