The Attempted Assassination of Trump Didn’t Change the Facts–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: July 15, 2024

Indy Digest: July 15, 2024

My Saturday started off with a tour of the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C.

I was in the city for the annual AAN Publishers conference, which had wrapped up the night before with an amazing Charleston Harbor cruise. Andy Brack, the publisher of the Charleston City Paper, the host publication, had set up a museum tour for conference attendees to begin before the museum opened to the general public.

Tonya M. Matthews, the museum’s president and CEO, started the tour in the museum’s African Ancestors Memorial Garden. The museum is located on the site of Gadsden’s Wharf—where 40 percent of all Africans enslaved in North America arrived after being taken from their homes, imprisoned and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in conditions that were beyond inhumane. Much of the garden sits below the museum, which is lifted by 18 columns into the air so the building does not touch the hallowed ground.

Afterward, we walked upstairs into the museum, where Malika N. Pryor, the museum’s chief learning and engagement officer, took us through the various exhibits that tell—via art, films, interactive elements and artifacts—”unvarnished stories of the African American experience across generations, the trauma and triumph that gave rise to a resilient people,” as the museum’s website says.

The museum visit was powerful and moving. As the hubby and I walked back to the hotel, I dealt with a flood of emotions—one of which was frustration over the current state of affairs in the United States.

Andy Brack had asked conference attendees to email him with their favorite experience in Charleston, so he could compile them into a story for the Charleston City Paper. When we returned to the hotel, I sat down at my computer and wrote this: “I had an amazing time in Charleston. The food has been stellar, and everyone has been welcoming and incredibly polite. The thing I most loved was the International African American Museum. Our visit was sobering and wonderful at the same time. I wish all Americans HAD TO visit this museum at this time when so many white politicians are trying to sweep portions of this history under the figurative rug.”

Several hours later, the hubby and went to an early dinner at Hank’s Seafood Restaurant (where we ate the best crabcakes we’d ever had). In the middle of dinner, a friend messaged me: “Trump wounded in PA.”

What?! I responded, before hopping online to see what had happened. For about an hour—before it became clear that former President Trump was OK—I was anxious, wondering if we were living through one of those moments in history that would become so important that we’d never forget where we were when we heard the news.

In the two days since that assassination attempt, social media feeds and airwaves have been filled with rhetoric and claims that are, frankly, terrible and embarrassing. More than one of my friends jumped on Facebook Saturday and began immediately speculating that the attempt was CLEARLY staged by Trump supporters—ignorant and unfounded speculation that became even more appalling when we all learned a spectator had been killed.

Meanwhile, some Trump supporters—including the Kremlin (!)—have blamed the shooting on the “atmosphere” created by President Biden, his supporters and the media. One of those claimants, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, said on X/Twitter: “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” This ridiculous statement, from the man who earlier today was announced as Trump’s running mate, gets even more ludicrous if you know that Vance himself once compared Trump to Hitler.

The assassination attempt may very well become a key moment in determining the next president of the United States—but beyond politics and the lives directly affected by the assassination attempt, it shouldn’t change much else.

Trump is still a candidate who has, despite the claims of Vance and others, made it VERY clear that he wants to be an imperial president—and he’s been given the authority to act as such by the U.S. Supreme Court. Project 2025 remains very real, and is, despite Trump’s denials, a plan authored by Trump appointees and allies. While some people on the left have indeed called for political violence, Trump and his allies have done so far more often. It’s Trump and allies who have ignored calls for action after repeated school shootings, who keep pushing lies about election integrity, who have called for a national abortion ban, and who keep trying to sweep the history of what happened at Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston, S.C., and the effects that history has on our country to this day, under that figurative rug.

What happened on Saturday in Butler, Pa., is terrible and inexcusable—but what happened didn’t erase the truths about the dangerous intentions and actions of Donald Trump and his allies.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• To echo what I wrote above: Here are some of the more harmful and disconcerting things being said in the wake of Saturday’s events: Time magazine reports that Elon Musk, Bill Ackman, Meghan McCain and others are blaming DEI efforts on lapses by the Secret Service. A Florida congressman is among the people baselessly claiming the assassination attempt was ordered by Biden, the “Deep State” or some combination thereof, as reported by Wired. Also from Wired: To nobody’s surprise, extremists are calling for retaliatory violence in response, and militias are using Saturday’s events to recruit more members.

• Meanwhile, there’s this CBS News headline from last week: “Ammo vending machines offer ’24/7′ access to bullets at some U.S. grocery stores.” Details: “Some grocery stores in the U.S. have something unusual in stock—24/7 access to bullets. Texas-based company American Rounds is installing ammo vending machines in stores to provide around-the-clock access to firearm ammunition—a move the company says will ‘redefine convenience in ammunition purchasing,’ while critics raise concerns about the risk of gun violence. … The machines are available at half a dozen locations in three states so far: Oklahoma, Alabama and Texas. According to the National Rifle Association of America Institute for Legislative Action, those three states do not require a permit to purchase guns and don’t require gun owners to have licenses or register their firearms. The company says ‘security is paramount’ for its machines, which are equipped with AI technology that features ‘card scanning and facial recognition software to meticulously verify the identity and age of each buyer.’”

• The classified documents case against Trump was tossed out today by a judge he appointed. CNN explains: “District Judge Aileen Cannon said in a 93-page ruling that the case should be tossed out based on her finding that special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges, was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Her rationale came purely on technical legal grounds and was not based on specifics of Trump’s alleged actions or the strength or weakness of the charges. In fact, she only mentioned the details about Mar-a-Lago and classified documents in one cursory paragraph within the 93-page ruling. Smith plans to appeal the ruling. In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, said that the Justice Department approved the plans to pursue an appeal. ‘The dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel,’ Carr said. ‘The Justice Department has authorized the Special Counsel to appeal the court’s order.’”

• If you’re at AT&T customer, you’re almost certainly the subject of a massive data breach. The Washington Post explains how this data breach is different than others: “AT&T said Friday that hackers who have hit other companies also swiped at least six months of 2022 phone records for almost everyone who had AT&T mobile service—that’s roughly 110 million customer accounts. AT&T said hackers don’t have the content of people’s calls or texts. For what AT&T says is a portion of those records, the stolen data also included some people’s estimated locations. The swiped location data is relatively unusual in a cyberattack, and it’s the part that freaked out Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. Your phone company logs the nearest cellular tower every time your device connects to its mobile network. That data is essentially a rough timeline and map of everywhere you go with your smartphone, including your home, work, house of worship, medical appointments and more. ‘It’s such an invasive window into our lives,’ Cahn said. The stolen location records of AT&T customers were limited to data from older 3G mobile connections and during slices of the day, an AT&T spokeswoman said. That’s probably a relatively limited amount of data on customers’ estimated whereabouts.”

• Moving away from national news … the Los Angeles Times examines the tolls that high interest rates are taking on Californians: “The cost of borrowing, whether for mortgages, credit cards or car loans, is the highest in more than two decades. And that is weighing especially hard on people in California, where housing, gas and many other things are more expensive than in most other states. California’s economy also relies more on interest-rate-sensitive sectors such as real estate and high tech, which helps explain why the state has been lagging in job growth and its unemployment rate is the highest in the nation. When interest rates rise, savers can earn more on their deposits. But in America’s consumer society, for most people higher rates mean that a lot of things cost a little (or a lot) more. That makes it harder to stretch an individual or family budget. It may mean giving up on the nicer car you had your heart set on, or settling for a smaller house, or a shorter, less glamorous vacation.”

• And finally … today’s recall news involves … sausage! Newsweek says: “A sausage product has been recalled over risks for allergy sufferers, the Food Safety and Inspection Service has announced. Taylor’s Sausage Inc., a company in Oregon, is recalling about 74 pounds of its ready-to-eat Landjaeger sausage product, as it contains an allergen that was not declared on the product label. After routine testing, the product was found to contain soy, one of the nine major allergens as designated by the Food and Drug Administration. The affected product is branded as ‘TAYLOR’S Sausage Hot LANDJAEGER’ and comes in packs of 12. The packages bear the lot code 23342-2, an establishment number of 6172 inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture mark of inspection and a use-by date of December 8, 2025. Packages were sold in California and Oregon.”

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