A look at past attacks against U.S. presidents and candidates

A shooting at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday that injured former President Donald Trump has heightened concerns about political violence and increased awareness of past attacks and assassination attempts against presidents and candidates. 

In a social media post shared on Saturday night, Trump thanked law enforcement officials for their quick actions after he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”

The Butler County district attorney confirms to CBS Pittsburgh station KDKA that two people are dead — the gunman and an audience member. Two law enforcement sources told CBS News the gunman was killed by a Secret Service sniper. Two other attendees are in critical condition.

Reporters heard numerous shots and Secret Service rushed the stage. Video captured by CBS News shows Trump touching his ear and then crouching to the ground. Some blood could be seen on his face.

Past direct attacks against presidents and candidates

Direct assaults against presidents, presidents-elect, and candidates have occurred on 15 separate occasions, with five resulting in death, according to a 2008 report compiled by the Congressional Research Service. That number does not include the latest incident involving Trump.  

The Congressional Research Service report says presidents who survived attacks include Gerald R. Ford (twice in 1975), Ronald W. Reagan (a near-fatal shooting in 1981), Bill Clinton (when the White House was fired upon in 1994), and George W. Bush (when an attacker threw a grenade that did not explode towards him and the president of Georgia during an event in Tbilisi in 2005). 

Two others who served as president and were attacked are Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, when he was president-elect, and Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, when he was seeking the presidency after being out of office for nearly four years.

Two other presidential candidates —Robert F. Kennedy, who was killed in 1968, and George C. Wallace, who was seriously wounded in 1972— were also victims of direct assaults, according to the report compiled by the Congressional Research Service.  

Presidents who were assassinated 

Four presidents — Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy — have been assassinated.

Of the 15 attacks listed in the report, only the Lincoln assassination was the result of a broad conspiracy, the report says. But conspiracy theories still surround many of these events.

Only one other incident “involved more than one participant,” the report says, in reference to a 1950 assault on the Blair House, the temporary residence of President Harry S. Truman. No evidence of other conspirators emerged from the subsequent investigation or prosecution, the report says. 

Of the 15 direct assaults, “11 relied upon pistols, two on automatic weapons, one on a rifle, and one on a grenade,” according to the report. All but two of the attacks (both against former president Ford) were committed by men. 

First documented attack against a president

According to the Congressional Research Service, the first attack occurred in 1835, when an attacker’s pistol misfired against President Andrew Jackson. The attacker, Richard Lawrence, was declared insane. He said “Jackson was preventing him from obtaining large sums of money and was ruining the country,” the report says.

Jake Miller contributed reporting. 

In:
• Donald Trump
• 2024 Elections