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Which other US president other than Trump has survived two assassination attempts? – India TV

Which other US president other than Trump has survived two assassination attempts? – India TV

Image source: AGENCIES Former US President Donald Trump and Gerald R. Ford.

Assassination attempt on Donald Trump: Just when it seemed the U.S. presidential campaign couldn't get any more chaotic, Republican candidate Donald Trump was assassinated for a second time, making this year's election the most violent and tumultuous in American history and shining a spotlight on the country's gun control system and the capabilities of the U.S. intelligence community. It's important to see how these attempts underscore a dark reality of American politics – where numerous U.S. presidents have been the target of assassination attempts.

Trump was forced off the Trump International golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, after a Secret Service gunman spotted a shooter in the bushes. Agents confronted the gunman and fired at least four rounds of ammunition at about 1:30 p.m. (17:30 GMT). The gunman then dropped his rifle, two backpacks and other items and fled in a black Nissan. Authorities identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who was later arrested in another county as he fled the scene in an SUV. Trump was safe and his plans to resume campaigning remained unchanged.

Several former presidents and presidential candidates have been the target of assassination attempts. In the past, four presidents – Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy – were assassinated while others survived the attempts. However, aside from Trump, there is only one president who survived not one but two assassination attempts.

Which other president has survived two assassination attempts?

This is the second attempt on Trump's life in two months. The former president and Republican candidate for the White House was shot at on July 13 during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. A bullet grazed his ear and he suffered minor injuries. The gunman was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, who killed one bystander and wounded two others before being killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Gerald R. Ford was president when he survived two assassination attempts in three weeks in 1975. During the first attempt, on September 5, 1975, Ford was in Sacramento, California, where he met with then-California Governor Jerry Brown. As he shook hands with Brown in front of a large crowd outside his hotel, a woman – Lynette Fromme – attempted to shoot Ford, but her shot missed and she was arrested on the spot. Fromme was a member of the notorious Manson cult and was sentenced to life in prison before being released in 2009.

Just weeks later, on September 22, a woman named Sara Jane Moore shot at Ford in San Francisco, but missed her target. Moore was grabbed by a passerby as she fired a second shot, wounding a taxi driver. Moore was arrested for her attempt and was reportedly influenced by radical revolutionary ideology. She was imprisoned and released in 2007.

History of assassinations of US presidents

The list of US presidents who have been assassinated in the past is long and includes prominent names such as Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, George W. Bush and now Donald Trump: Here is a brief timeline of assassination attempts on US presidents in American history.

  1. 1835: Andrew Jackson survived an attack by Richard Lawrence in front of the US Capitol, in which both of his pistols misfired.
  2. 1865: Abraham Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth while attending a performance in Washington and died the following day.
  3. 1881: James A. Garfield was killed just six months after taking office. He was shot by Charles Guiteau as he walked through a Washington train station to catch a train to New England. Guiteau was executed in 1882.
  4. 1901: William McKinley was shot twice in the chest at close range after a speech in New York. Doctors initially hoped he would recover, but complications from gangrene around the gunshot wounds led to his death on September 14.
  5. 1912: Theodore Roosevelt was shot by John Schrank in Milwaukee while campaigning for a return to the White House. He was saved by folded papers and a metal eyeglass case that cushioned the impact of the bullet.
  6. 1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt narrowly escaped death when Guiseppe Zangara gave a speech from the back seat of an open car in Miami and fired shots.
  7. 1950: Harry Truman also survived an assassination attempt when two armed Puerto Rican nationalists entered Blair House to kill him. Oscar Collazo was arrested and sentenced to death before his sentence was changed.
  8. 1963: John F. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald in his motorcade as it drove through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.
  9. 1968: Robert F. Kennedya presidential candidate, was shot dead in a Los Angeles hotel after winning the 1968 California primary. Sirhan Sirhan was found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to death, a sentence later commuted to life imprisonment.
  10. 1972: George Wallace was on the verge of winning the Democratic presidential nomination when he was shot by Arthur Bremer during a campaign rally in Maryland, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
  11. 1975; George R. Ford survived two assassination attempts – one by Lynette Fromme in Sacramento on September 5 and another by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco on September 22.
  12. 1981: Ronald Reagan was leaving a speech in Washington and was on his way to his motorcade when he was shot by John Hinckley Jr. Hinckley was arrested and committed to a psychiatric hospital before being released in 2022.
  13. 2005: George W. Bush was attending a rally in Tbilisi with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2005 when a hand grenade was thrown at them. Fortunately, the grenade did not detonate and Vladimir Arutyunian was sentenced to life imprisonment.

READ ALSO | Trump blames Biden and Harris for second assassination attempt

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