One thing is clear after shots were fired at former President Donald Trump during his Saturday rally in Pennsylvania: Americans are freaked out.
In a YouGov poll taken after the shooting, 50% of adults said that political violence is “a very big problem” in the US. An additional 32% of adults said that political violence is “somewhat of a problem” in American society.
Only 2% of American adults in the new survey felt that political violence isn’t an issue in the country.
There’s a major disparity among age groups when it comes to the issue. While 37% of Americans aged 18 to 29 rated political violence as “a very big problem,” a whopping 63% of Americans aged 65 years old and older agreed with that statement.
One explanation for the gap could be the memories of societal turbulence from the 1960s.
For Americans who lived through the 1960s or are tied to that era in some way, the assassinations of major figures like President John F. Kennedy, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy collectively represented some of the darkest days of that decade.
A stunning 67% of the respondents said the current political climate makes political violence “more likely” than normal.
Chaos erupted on Saturday evening in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was fired upon while holding a political rally ahead of the Republican National Convention.
Secret Service officers returned fire, killing a 20-year-old shooter later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Trump said he was shot in his right ear but was otherwise stable. One attendee was killed and two others were critically injured. The FBI on Sunday announced that it is probing the assassination attempt as a potential act of domestic terrorism.
The rally-goer who was killed has been identified as Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter.
The failed assassination attempt stunned the nation and brought the tense presidential race to a near-standstill.
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign pulled television ads and paused “outbound communications” following the shooting.
Biden emphasized a message of unity as he spoke about the incident at the White House on Sunday.
“Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is more important than that right now — unity,” he said. “We’ll debate and we’ll disagree. But we’re not going to lose sight of who we are as Americans.”
The president is set to address the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday.
Trump is still planning to speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, where he’s set to formally accept his party’s presidential nomination.
YouGov surveyed 4,339 American adults in its poll, which was conducted on July 14.
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