Tom Nichols: “Two assassination attempts in about two months is indeed horrifying, but it is not unprecedented: In 1975, President Gerald Ford survived two such attempts in fewer than three weeks. One assailant was a woman from West Virginia named Sara Jane Moore. The other was an acolyte of the murderer Charles Manson, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme. Both of them came within feet of killing Ford.”
“Ford was a decent man and an underrated president, and he certainly had enemies, especially after pardoning Richard Nixon…”
“But he did not blame his opponents for the attempts on his life. He did not blame America, or the courts, or anyone else. He also did not use the attacks by Moore and Fromme to fundraise: Trump used his attacks to beat the bushes for money within a few hours. Instead, Ford acceded to the Secret Service’s request that he start wearing a trench coat with a zip-in Kevlar vest. (It was very uncomfortable and he disliked wearing it.) He then went back out in public and conducted a presidential campaign, which he lost.”
