Teddy Roosevelt was shot point blank in the chest at a campaign stop. The bullet penetrated his chest after passing through a steal eyeglass case and his 50 page speech. Teddy noted he wasn’t coughing blood and knew he would survive. He calmed the lynch mod down that were going to murder the assassin and then did his speech.
He lost the election despite being a total badass.
Later, Teddy reluctantly ran as VP with McKinley who won the election and was quickly assassinated. Teddy became president and won a second term.
Anyway, attempted assassination isn’t the boost people think it is - even for awesome badasses like Teddy Roosevelt.
He famously started that speech with the line “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!”
Teddy Roosevelt was shot point blank in the chest at a campaign stop. The bullet penetrated his chest after passing through a steal eyeglass case and his 50 page speech. Teddy noted he wasn’t coughing blood and knew he would survive. He calmed the lynch mod down that were going to murder the assassin and then did his speech.
He lost the election despite being a total badass.
Later, Teddy reluctantly ran as VP with McKinley who won the election and was quickly assassinated. Teddy became president and won a second term.
Anyway, attempted assassination isn’t the boost people think it is - even for awesome badasses like Teddy Roosevelt.
The idea was probably rather that the right would spin this as some sort of attack on their existence and go full on Reichstagsbrand.
Playing the victim is the entire Spiel of the far right, it’s not implausible that actually being a victim would create a boost from undecided voters.
Donald Trump could shit himself and they’d try to spin it as a leftist attack on their existence.
He famously started that speech with the line “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!”