UPDATE (7/16/24): Diana Swartz, Chairman of the Wapello County Democrats, submitted the following statement to Ottumwa Radio News:
“The Wapello County Democrats feel as Americans we do not condone violence of any kind. We are sorry that a man lost his life attending a political rally and send our condolences to his family. We are relieved to hear everyone else injured at this event will recover from their injuries including Mr. Trump. I would like to say as citizens it is our responsibility to choose our words and our actions wisely so not to encourage violence.”
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The Chair of the Wapello County Republicans offered her thoughts on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Trudy Caviness says she was watching Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania live on television when the tragic events unfolded Saturday night. Caviness says she felt “fear and shock” and recalled previous attempts at presidents’ lives from decades ago.
“You kind of do a flashback to when I saw JFK and Reagan…My obvious concern was ‘Is he (Trump) okay?'” Wapello County Republican Chair Trudy Caviness
According to multiple reports, Trump was shot in his right ear. Blood was running down the former president’s face was he was ushered off the stage by secret service agents. Trump is reportedly fine. However, one attendee was killed and another two were seriously injured in the shooting.
Caviness hypothesized what led up to the assassination attempt.
“We’ve got a lot of I’m going to say ‘vicious’ comments and name-calling…You and I can look at this and say, ‘I don’t like it. It shouldn’t happen.’ We have some people who their mental state cannot process that and they think, ‘I need to go do something.'” Wapello County Republican Chair Trudy Caviness
Caviness says recent political discourse revolves around an individual’s persona instead of the candidate’s policy and she believes that’s dangerous.
“You know they say, ‘Trump is going to take away our democracy, take away our freedom,’ and those aren’t issue things. Those are scare tactics. And so I see that happening more and more even with some of our more local races…not the facts, not the issues, they’ve gone into personalities.” Wapello County Republican Chair Trudy Caviness
Caviness believes President Joe Biden’s address from the Oval Office on Sunday with a message to “lower the temperature” helps to calm things down but in her estimation, other entities must pitch in as well.
“But it also has to come from some of the news media too. I mean it needs to take the whole gamut. It also takes the social media.” Wapello County Republican Chair Trudy Caviness
Trump is expected to speak Monday during the opening night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Ottumwa Radio News reached out to the Wapello County Democratic Party for comment and did not receive a response as of publication.
