New York Times calls assassination attempt on Trump ‘antithetical to America’

The New York Times called the assassination attempt on former President Trump "antithetical" to the idea of America in an editorial published Saturday evening.

"Americans received a sobering reminder on Saturday of the threat that political violence poses to our democracy," the editorial, headlined "The Attack on Donald Trump Is Antithetical to America," read. "It is a mercy that Donald Trump was not seriously injured by gunfire at an evening campaign rally in Butler, a Pennsylvania city north of Pittsburgh, and a tragedy that at least one person at the rally was killed. We hope that Mr. Trump recovers quickly and fully."

The editorial board called any attempt to resolve an election through violence "abhorrent."

The shooter has been identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old man from western Pennsylvania. Crooks reportedly shot Trump from a rooftop around 130 yards away during a rally in the small town, striking the upper part of Trump’s right ear while the former president was speaking to rallygoers just after 6 p.m. on Saturday. Another rally attendee was killed, and two others were critically hurt. Crooks was killed by law enforcement shortly after the shooting began.

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"Ballots, not bullets, should always be the means by which Americans work through their differences," the editorial board warned. "It is now incumbent on political leaders of both parties, and on Americans individually and collectively, to resist a slide into further violence and the type of extremist language that fuels it. Saturday’s attack should not be taken as a provocation or a justification."

The opinion piece repeatedly lambasted