Presidential Assassination Threats

The Tumultuous Year Of 2020 Is Upon Us!

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The tumultuous year of 2020 is upon us, and trying to figure out what will happen in the next year is a major challenge!

In many ways, this could be the most difficult year in American politics since 1968, when the nation suffered through bloodshed, violence, and assassination.

There is great fear that if Donald Trump loses reelection, we might see similar bloodshed, violence, and even assassination, with the latter being even before the election.

We have not had a serious threat to a sitting President, eye to eye, since 1981 and Ronald Reagan, and reminding ourselves of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, makes one fearful that some Democratic contender could face such a dire threat, as well, in the new year.

Constitutional government and democracy are at stake in a way not seen since the era of Fascism and Nazism, leading up to World War II.

Let us hope we make it as a nation through the year 2020 with our government stable and in safe hands after the election!

35 Years Since Last Direct Assassination Attempt–When Will Next Occur?

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35 years ago, President Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously wounded by John Hinckley.

There have been assassination threats against every President since then, but none eyeball to eyeball.

One has to wonder in the midst of the political maelstrom that we are in during this election year of 2016, when the next such direct threat will occur.

Already, there have been reported threats against Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

With the reckless rhetoric of Donald Trump in particular, but also other Presidential candidates, the danger of a serious assassination attempt or success has grown dramatically.

One has to hope and pray that nothing will happen, but this blogger has written on thehill.com and on History News Network (hnn.us) of his fear of a tragic event occurring.  Just by the fact that we have had no direct threat in 35 years, after so many between 1963 and 1981, makes one wonder about the odds catching up toward doom!

 

 

Two Speakers Of The House Who Could Have Become President Due To Presidential Assassination Issues

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In 1947, the Presidential Succession Act was changed from cabinet members to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate being right behind the Vice President of the United States.

Since then, as a result of the change of the law, there have been two circumstances involving Presidential assassinations and threats, which provided for the possibility of the Speaker of the House of Representatives becoming President.

The first was Republican Speaker Joseph W. Martin, Jr of Massachusetts in late 1947.  The Zionist Stern Gang group, terrorists fighting for the creation of an Israeli nation, had been engaged in violence and assassinations against the British and their control of Palestine.

Margaret Truman, the President’s daughter, claimed her father, President Harry Truman, was threatened with death by letter bombs sent by the Stern Gang to Washington, DC, which were intercepted without harm by the Postal Service, with the assistance of the Secret Service.  Had Truman been harmed, however, we would have a switch of parties in the White House, and the second Speaker to become President, with the first being President James K. Polk in the Presidential Election of 1844.

When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963,  Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had suffered a massive heart attack in 1955, became President, and had he died in office over the next 14 months, Democratic Speaker of the House John W. McCormack of Massachusetts, who was 73 years old, would have become President.

A Secret Service revelation in recent years was that President Johnson was in danger of being shot by an agent overnight after the Kennedy assassination, when he walked out of his home after midnight, leading to an agent, who thought there was an intruder on the property, to withdraw his firearm and aim it until he realized it was the President.  The story is that Johnson backed up in shock, but imagine if he had been killed about ten hours after becoming President!  And then we would have had the oldest President in American history, Speaker McCormack, an unwilling heir apparent!

These incidents make one wish that the Presidential Succession Act  be returned to the 1886 law, making the cabinet members of the President, starting with the Secretary of State, next in line after the Vice President.  But that is unlikely to happen, particularly while the Republican Party controls Congress!

November 22–52 Years And Still In Recovery From JFK Assassination

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For anyone who was at least eight years old in 1963, they will never forget the shock of the John F. Kennedy Assassination on this day 52 years ago!

We will never forget where we were when the shocking news was revealed, and we are still reverberating from the effects of that tragic event.

We have had no Presidential death in office since, and the odds are catching up, with a world burdened by “lone wolves” domestically, and international terrorism!

The death threats against President Barack Obama have been, as I reveal in my recent book, the greatest in number of any President since Abraham Lincoln.

Just this past week, it was revealed that a person was arrested who had made dangerous threats against President Obama on Facebook, including wanting to feed Obama to a wood chipper!

What kind of crazy mind would think up something like this, and also, thankfully, write about it, so that he could be apprehended?

Mental illness, along with religious fanaticism, are the main causes of the threats faced today by our President, but one can wonder, as many has, how Obama has survived nearly seven years without being directly harmed.

Not only Obama, but all Presidential candidates and the next President and Vice President, whoever they are,  have been and will be under constant threat in a overly dangerous world!

It makes one wonder why any sane person would want to seek the Presidency or serve in that office!