Any American born in the 1950s can tell where he was on the afternoon of November 22, 1963, when a national radio network announced the shooting that killed President John F. Kennedy.
Political assassinations are national traumas and can change the history of countries. The death of Abraham Lincoln, as the Civil War drew to a close in 1865, provoked a wave of mourning not only in the North, but also in the slave-owning South, which was defeated in the war.
Since Ronald Reagan was seriously injured by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981, a president was no longer so exposed to an attack. But as a candidate, Barack Obama has attracted so many death threats that the Secret Service has placed him under protection usually reserved for presidents after inauguration.
In the early hours of Wednesday (8), a man was arrested near the home of Brett Kavanaugh, Justice of the Supreme Court. He was armed and told police that he wanted to kill the magistrate, after he leaked his opinion aligned with the majority of conservatives in the Court in favor of recriminalizing abortion.
On Friday (3), a murder in the state of Wisconsin sent a chill down the spine of observers of the climate of political and racial violence in the USA. Retired judge Jack Roemer was found dead in his home. He was sitting and his hands were tied. In the basement, the shooter, who had turned the gun to his own head, was dying. The killer Douglas Uhde died in the hospital. He was a career criminal and had received sentences imposed by Roemer. He was described by friends as anti-government.
Police found a list of other possible targets, which included current Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who escaped one of the boldest. political attack plans.
In 2020, six men linked to far-right militias were accused of masterminding the kidnapping and eventual murder of Whitmer as a tool to start unrest and prevent the inauguration of Joe Biden. It was the biggest recent domestic terrorism plot to go to trial, but the case against four of the indictes collapsed, in part, because of FBI mistakes. Two of them pleaded guilty in plea bargains.
The House committee investigating the Capitol invasion in January 2021 heard from witnesses that Donald Trump, watching the invasion on TV, expressed support for the invaders who shouted “Hang Mike Pence!”. The then deputy, who secured Biden’s victory certification that day, was 60 seconds away from the group that broke through security and reached the point where he was removed by the Secret Service.
It was only last week that we learned that, on the eve of the January 6 invasion, Pence’s chief of staff summoned the top Secret Service agent responsible for his escort and warned that Trump was going to turn against the then vice president in public and create a threat to his security.
These are details that, in the past, we associated with Central American republican militias.
On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning on domestic terrorism, explaining that the “high-threat environment” is due to extremist movements motivated by ideology, religion, race and “current events”. The note specifically refers to the expected Supreme Court ruling on abortion and the midterm elections to be held in November.
