STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
As news of the assassination attempt spread, Vice President Harris wrote of her opponent, quote, "I am glad he is safe. Violence has no place in America." The Trump campaign had its own response, and NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben is watching. Good morning.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: What's the campaign saying?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, interestingly, very shortly after this incident, the campaign was the first to alert many people of what happened with a statement to the press from spokesman Steven Cheung. It said, President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity.
Now, that's pretty vague. It raised a lot of questions. And since then, after that, almost all the details came from law enforcement. There hasn't been any official campaign statements since then, except last night, Donald Trump posted a post on his Truth Social network saying thank you to law enforcement and Secret Service. But beyond that, Trump was definitely communicating with supporters. There was - there were emails sent out. But also, by last night, if you went to the Trump campaign website, you got a message reading in part, fear not - all caps - I am safe and well, followed by donation buttons.
INSKEEP: Donation buttons - is it reasonable to expect added support for Trump after an incident like this?
KURTZLEBEN: You know, we have no idea of exactly what will happen, but some speculated that the Butler shooting contributed to a Trump fundraising spike in July...
INSKEEP: Oh, yeah.
KURTZLEBEN: ...The month when that happened. But if there's not a groundswell, I would say it's reasonable to expect an intensification of support. The shooting really reinforces a story that Trump has told his entire political career, since well before any assassination attempt. And that story is that he has many enemies that want to stop him. That message I mentioned on his website last night - it also said, there are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us. I will not stop fighting for you. And that really echoes his message regarding the multiple court cases he's facing, his message about the media, his political opponents. His political identity is that he is beset by enemies on all sides, and that's the identity many of his supporters claim as well.
INSKEEP: Well, now, police have a suspect in custody, as we heard from Greg Allen. He has his own political views, apparently, as expressed over the years on social media. I should note these kinds of attacks are most commonly traced to individuals who act out of their own often very strange or inexplicable motives. But what, if anything...
KURTZLEBEN: Right.
INSKEEP: ...Does this incident say about American politics generally?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, unsurprisingly, I'm going to say it doesn't say anything good. But to expound, there was a clip you played earlier where the Secret Service spokesman yesterday said, we live in dangerous times.
INSKEEP: Oh, yeah.
KURTZLEBEN: And, yeah, that's the blatant truth. Consider that another major storyline right now is that Trump and his running mate's hateful rhetoric towards immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, was followed by bomb threats in schools there. And we've seen this kind of disturbing incident growing for years, especially since Trump came to power or even got into politics. There was January 6. There was the attack on Paul Pelosi, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband. There have been threats to election workers.
I just keep thinking about - after the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, the crowd briefly turned on the press and yelled that the shooting was journalists' fault. It was very tense and very frightening for a short while there. My point is that we have weeks until election day, and violence can have terrifying knock-on effects.
INSKEEP: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben, thanks for the insights - really appreciate it.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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