Sept. 14, 2025

"THE SHOTS THAT MISSED: Failed Assassinations and the Freedom They Killed"

Show Notes
Transcript

Reid Carter examines the assassination attempts that failed and what they cost America in freedom. From the two women who tried to kill Gerald Ford in three weeks to Reagan taking a bullet and joking about it, every failed attempt brought more security, more restrictions, more walls between us and democracy. The Congressional baseball shooting that nearly killed Steve Scalise. The Trump golf course attempt just last year. Each failure didn't just traumatize victims - it transformed America into a security state where politicians hide behind bulletproof glass and democracy happens at a distance. Sunday proves surviving assassination might be worse than dying.

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WEBVTT

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Caalarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Red Carter, Sunday, September fourteenth,

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twenty twenty five. Yesterday we examined the successful American political assassinations.

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Today we look at the failures, the shots that missed,

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the bullets that didn't kill. You'd think failed assassinations would

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be better than successful ones. You'd be wrong. Every failed

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attempt brings more security, more barriers, more fear, until democracy

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becomes something that happens behind bulletproof glass, and freedom means

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the freedom to be searched from Reagan's joke while bleeding

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to Trump's golf course near miss. These are the failed

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assassinations that succeeded in killing something else our to be

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a normal democracy. This is celebrity trials, the shots that missed.

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Let's start with the presidents who almost died, and there

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are more than you think. Andrew Jackson eighteen thirty five,

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first presidential assassination attempt. Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter

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who thought he was the King of England, tried to

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shoot Jackson. Both pistols misfired. Jackson beat him with his

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cane different times. Franklin Roosevelt nineteen thirty three hadn't even

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been inaugurated yet. Giuseppe Zangara shot at him in Miami,

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missed fdr killed Chicago Mayor Anton Chermack instead. Zangara was

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executed thirty three days later. They didn't mess around in

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nineteen thirty three. Harry Truman nineteen fifty two Puerto Rican

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nationalists tried to shoot their way into Blairhouse. Killed a cop,

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almost got to Truman. He was taking a nap, woke

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up to gunfire. The most powerful man in the world

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nearly died in his underwear, But then came the nineteen

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seventies and everything accelerated. Gerald Ford September nineteen seven five

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two attempts three weeks apart, both by women. September fifth,

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Lynette's squeaky from Manson follower pulls a gun on Ford

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in Sacramento. Secret Service grabs her. The gun didn't fire.

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She forgot to chamber around. A Manson cult is too

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stupid to properly load a weapon. Nearly changed history. September

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twenty second, Sarah Jane Moore shoots at Ford in San Francisco,

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misses by five feet because a bystander grabbed her arm.

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A Vietnam vet named Oliver Sipple save the president. His

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reward being outed as gay and dying alone of pneumonia

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at forty seven. Ford survived both attempts, but something changed.

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Presidents stopped walking freely, started living in bubbles. Democracy got

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its first taste of permanent fear. Then came the big one.

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March thirtieth, nineteen eighty one, two twenty seven pm, Washington, Hilton.

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Ronald Reagan has been president for sixty nine days. He's

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walking to his limo. John Hinckley Junior fires six shots

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in one point seven seconds. One hits Reagan bouncing off

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the limo and into his lung, One hits Press Secretary

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James Brady in the head, one hits Secret Service agent

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Tim McCarthy, one hits d C Police officer Thomas Delahanty.

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Four men shot because Hinckley wanted to impress Jody Foster.

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He'd seen taxi driver fifteen times, thought killing a president

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would make an actress love him. Reagan didn't know he

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was shot at first. Secret Service shoved him in the limo.

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Then he started coughing up blood. The bullet was an

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inch from his heart. Honey, I forgot to duck he

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told Nancy, I hope you're all Republicans, he told the surgeons,

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joking while bleeding internally. That's either courage or shock, maybe both.

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Reagan survived, Brady was paralyzed, became a gun control advocate.

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McCarthy and Delahanty recovered. Hinckley got not guilty by reason

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of insanity. He's out now free living in Virginia. The

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would be presidential assassin is currently a freeman. Reagan was

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seventy the oldest president at the time, survived by an

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inch one inch between Reagan living and George H. W.

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Bush becoming president in nineteen eighty one. These attempts didn't

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just fail, They transformed the presidency into a maximum security

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prison where the inmate happens to run the country. After Reagan,

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assassinating presidents became nearly impossible, so the violence found new targets.

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January eighth, twenty eleven, Tucson, Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords is

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holding a constituent meeting in a safe way parking lot.

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Congress on your corner. She called it democracy at its

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most basic, a representative meeting the represented. Jared Lee Loughner

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shows up with a glock, shoots Gifford's in the head,

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then shoots eighteen six die, including nine year old Christina

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Taylor Green born on September eleventh, two thousand and one,

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survived the worst terrorist attack to die at a grocery

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store meeting. Gifford's survived miracle medicine both. She had to

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relearn to walk, talk, live, Her career ended. Her life

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changed forever, all because she held a public meeting while

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someone with mental illness and a gun decided she needed

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to die. But that was just the beginning. June fourteenth,

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twenty seventeen, Alexandria, Virginia, the Congressional Republican baseball team is

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practicing for their annual charity game seven nine am. They're

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in the batting cage taking grounders, being normal people playing

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a game. James Hodgkinson shows up with an SKS rifle

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and a list of Republican names. Opens fire. Steve Scalise,

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the House Majority whip, is shot in the hip. The

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bullet tears through his pelvis, damages internal organ He nearly

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bleeds out on second base. Four others are shot. Capitol

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police return fire kill Hodgkinson. If they hadn't been there,

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only there because Scalicie's leadership position required protection. It would

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have been a massacre. Hodgkinson was mad about healthcare, about Trump,

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about Republicans, so he decided to execute them at baseball practice.

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Scalise survived after months of surgeries, still walks with a limp,

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still serves in Congress, still plays baseball. That's either brave

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or stubborn. Probably both. Then the recent attempts. At October

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twenty twenty two, Paul Pelosi, husband of then Speaker Nancy Pelosi,

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beaten with a hammer by a man looking to kidnap

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her fractured skull, brain surgery, survived. June twenty twenty four,

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Brett Cavanaugh, man with gun, knife, zip ties shows up

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at his house to kill him over abortion rights. Calls

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nine to one one on himself. Even some would be

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assassins can't follow Through September two thousand twenty four, Donald

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Trump Ryan Routh with an AK forty seven at the

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golf course. We covered this. Secret service spotted him, He ran,

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got caught. Now representing himself at trial because he's an idiot.

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Each attempt that fails leads to more security, more restrictions,

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more distance. You can't meet your congress person at a

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grocery store anymore, can't watch them play baseball, can't approach

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them without going through metal detectors and background checks. Democracy

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becomes something you watch from a distance, behind barriers through

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bulletproof glass on TV. The assassins failed to kill their targets,

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but they succeeded in killing accessibility, in making democracy less democratic,

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in turning public servants into protected prisoners. Here's what nobody

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talks about. Surviving assassination might be worse than dying from it.

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Lincoln died, He became a martyr, a legend, the great Emancipator,

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forever frozen in nobility. Reagan survived, spends seven more years

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as president, with Nancy running things half the time while

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he descended into Alzheimer's. Brady spent thirty three years paralyzed

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in pain, forgotten except as a footnote. Gabby Gifford survived.

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Has to live with brain damage, has to struggle to speak,

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has to watch the person she was on old videos,

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knowing she'll never be her again. Steve Scalise survived, gets

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death threats regularly, needs security everywhere. Can't play baseball without

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wondering if someone's watching with a rifle. The survivors don't

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get to be martyrs. They get to be reminders, walking,

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talking or not talking, evidence of American political violence. But

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here's the real cost. After Lincoln, president's got better security.

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After Kennedy, they got motorcades. After Reagan, they got surgical

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teams on standby. After nine to eleven, they got flying fortresses.

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After Trump, they got military grade everything. Each assassination or

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attempt adds another layer of protection, another barrier, another wall

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between the leaders and the led. The capital has more

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security than some military bases. Congress members have panic buttons,

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judges have marshals. Even school board members get death threats

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requiring protection. We've created an arms race between assassins and security.

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The assassins get better weapons, security gets better barriers, democracy

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gets worse. You know what Charlie Kirk was doing when

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he was shot, sitting at a table talking to college students,

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No barrier, no glass, just conversation. That's over. Now every

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conservative speaker will demand military grade security. Every campus event

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will look like a fortress. Every political conversation will happen

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through layers of protection. The shooter didn't just kill Charlie Kirk,

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They killed the last bit of accessible democracy. And here's

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the sick irony. The more security we add, the more

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it confirms the assassin's worldview that violence is the only

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way to be heard, that bullets speak louder than ballots.

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Every metal detector says democracy is dangerous, Every bulletproof shield

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says disagreement might be deadly. Every security checkpoint says we're

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at war with ourselves. The failed assassinations didn't fail. They

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succeeded in transforming America from a democracy into a security state,

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from a republic into a fortress, from citizens into potential

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threats more in a moment, So where does Charlie Kirk's

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assassination leave us? His killer is still free. The FBI

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has no leads. Their sharing could be anywhere, could be

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anyone could be planning the next one. Utah Valley University

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is closed through tomorrow, will reopen with metal detectors, armed guards,

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surveillance everywhere. The campus where Kirk died will become a fortress.

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Every conservative speaker is reassessing security, every liberal one too.

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Because bullets don't check party registration. Turning Point USA announced

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their continuing Kirk's tour, but with enhanced security measures that

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means snipers on roofs, metal detectors at doors, background checks

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for attendance, a college speaking tour that looks like a

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presidential visit. The students who watched Kirk die are traumatized

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in therapy. Some dropped out. They came to hear political

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debate and saw political murder. Kirk's wife and children are

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in hiding death threats from both sides, some celebrating her

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husband's death, some blaming her for inadequate security. America, at

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its finest Congress is proposing new security measures, more money

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for protection, more restrictions on public events, more distance between

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politicians and people. The metal detector industry is booming. Security

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companies can't hire fast enough. Bulletproof glass manufacturers have six

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month backlogs. This is victory for the assassins, not the

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ones who succeed in killing, the ones who succeed in

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making us afraid. Every public event now carries the question

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is this where someone dies? Every political figure wonders, am

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I next? Every citizen asks is disagreement worth dying for?

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We're not having political debates anymore. We're having secured events.

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We're not meeting our representatives, We're viewing them. Through barriers.

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Democracy requires trust. Assassination destroys it. Democracy requires access. Security

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prevents it. Democracy requires disagreement. Murder ends it. From John

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Wilkes Booth to Charlie Kirk's killer, every assassin thinks they're

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saving America. They're not. They're killing it. One bullet, one barrier,

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one freedom at a time. That's celebrity Trials for Sunday,

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September fourteenth. This weekend, we examined one hundred and sixty

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years of American political assassination, the successes that created martyrs,

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the failures that created fortresses. Charlie Kirk is dead as

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we write this on Thursday, his killer is still free,

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and America is a little less democratic than it was

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last week. Tomorrow we return to regular trial coverage. The

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kiss and Kill verdict should come updates on the Trump

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assassination attempt trial, and whatever fresh horror emerges from our courts.

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But ask yourself this, when did you last see a

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politician without security? When did you last attend a political

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event without being searched? When did democracy stop feeling democratic?

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The answer is every time someone picks up a gun

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instead of a ballot, every time grievance becomes gunfire every

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time we accept that political violence is just part of

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American life. I'm read Carter. The assassins successful and failed

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haven't just killed people. They've killed the very idea of

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democracy as something we do together in person, without fear.

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We don't settle disagreements anymore, we survive them. When survival

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becomes the goal, democracy is already dead. Charlie Kirk was

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thirty one. He died doing something that should be safe,

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talking to college students about politics. That it wasn't safe,

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That it ended in blood, That his killer is still

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free tells you everything about where we are. This is America,

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where political speech requires military security and democracy happens behind

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bulletproof glass. We have to be better than this. We

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have to stop killing each other over disagreements. We have

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to remember that democracy requires to live with people we

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disagree with, not kill them. Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk

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and all the others you deserved in America that could

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disagree without violence. We all do see you tomorrow. The

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proceeding was for entertainment and educational purposes only. All information

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was obtained from public sources and historical records. Views expressed

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are those of the host Calaroga Shark Media disclaims responsibility

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for all statements made