NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's been decades, but former President Donald Trump's attempted assassination isn't the first in this country.
NewsChannel 5's political analyst, Pat Nolan, who has covered several over the years, said today's events remind him of the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and MLK. He likened this particular attempt to that of FDR and Ronald Reagan, adding this could be a sign of just how polarized things have become in our country.
"You begin to get worried how polarizing things are that somebody will decide to take action. Let’s hope nobody else decides to do that," he said.
Nolan predicted this will likely change things down the road, especially in an election season.
He expects Secret Service to do a deep dive into what went wrong here, with safety measures probably ramping up at future rallies and events.
He adds this could also sway certain voters.
“I wouldn’t be surprised, where something like this happens, that there’s not some reason President Trump’s numbers will go up to some degree...but it’d have to be among undecideds and people that haven’t really made up their minds yet," explained Nolan.
Nolan also thinks Trump's reaction in the moments after being shot could be telling.
“I suspect president Trump will be back out on the campaign trail. If you think his supporters that show up at his rallies are ardent before, they’ll be particularly ardent in the future," he said. "You saw as he left the stage tonight he was putting his hand up, he was telling the crowd he was okay... but he was also indicating he was going to continue to fight."
While Nolan expects high emotion in the immediate aftermath, he is not sure how drastically this will affect the rest of the election.
Either way, he is adamant that there's absolutely no place in our democracy for this kind of violence.
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