Elections

A would-be assassin targets Trump. What it could mean for America.

Shortly after 6pm on Saturday, a would-be assassin took aim at former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump and two others were injured and one person was killed before the Secret Service shot and killed the alleged gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Crooks was a registered Republican but gave $15 to a progressive Political Action Committee in 2021. Law enforcement has yet to identify a motive or an ideology.

For the first time in decades, a presidential candidate has been the target of an assassination plot. How might Saturday's events affect an already divided America?

Author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin discusses what history can teach us about this moment.

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Older voters have thoughts on whether Biden's up to the job

In the weeks since Biden's disastrous performance in the presidential debate, a steady drip of high-profile supporters – everyone from members of Congress, to big donors like George Clooney – has urged him to step aside.

They're worried he's too old for a second term, and too vulnerable to losing to Trump.

President Biden rejects those calls. He believes he can withstand a bruising campaign, win re-election, and lead the country for four more years.

Last fall, Consider This host Scott Detrow traveled to western Pennsylvania — a key swing state — where he gathered a group of voters all around the same age as Biden and Trump, to talk about how they viewed age in the race.

This week, Detrow checked back in with some of them to see if recent events have changed how this group of key voters are thinking about President Biden.

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Email us at considerthis@npr.org.