A shooting occurred while Donald Trump was speaking at a rally, and investigators are considering it a possible assassination attempt on the former president.
Here are some notable examples of mass shootings involving U.S. presidents and presidential candidates, including Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.
President Reagan was shot and seriously injured while leaving an event at the Hilton Hotel in Washington. The assailant, John Hinckley Jr., was granted unconditional release in 2022.
Reagan was hospitalized for 12 days. The incident helped him demonstrate his humor and resilience during his recovery, and Reagan’s popularity grew.
President Ford escaped unscathed in two separate assassination attempts by women in California just 17 days apart in September 1975.
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Wallace was shot four times at a shopping mall in Laurel, Maryland while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, leaving him partially paralyzed.
The assassination attempt on Wallace, known for his racist views and populist support, highlighted continuing political tensions in the U.S. and potential domestic violence from the Vietnam War era.
President John F. Kennedy’s brother, Robert, who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, was shot and killed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
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The assassination had a major impact on the 1968 presidential election and occurred just two months after the assassination of civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., adding to the political turmoil of the late 1960s.
President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas while traveling in a motorcade with his wife, Jackie.
The Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination, concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine living in the Soviet Union, acted alone.
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Many Americans believe that JFK’s death marked the beginning of a more violent era in U.S. politics and society, against the backdrop of the escalating Vietnam War and the civil rights movement.
President-elect Franklin Roosevelt was the target of an assassination attempt in Miami, Florida. He was unharmed, but Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was killed in the attack.
Like Trump, former president Teddy Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee, Wisconsin while running for the White House.
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The bullet, which remained in his chest for the rest of his life, was slowed by the 50 pages of speech paper and the folds of a steel eyeglass case that were in his breast pocket.
Famously, despite being shot, Roosevelt decided to give his planned speech.
President McKinley was shot and killed by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in Buffalo, New York.
Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, while attending a play called “Our American Cousin” at Ford Theatre in Washington.
Booth’s attack, which took place just days after the Confederate surrender during the Civil War, was part of a larger plot to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward.
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