On Saturday, it was an otherwise normal evening in Salt Lake City’s Liberty Park. Families picnicked. Couples walked their dogs. Friends gathered to take their minds off the heat. Eighteen hundred miles away, the 2024 presidential election was upended by gunfire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The suspected shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to get surprisingly close. He attacked from the rooftop of a nearby building outside the rally and was killed by the Secret Service.
Former President Donald Trump took the stage shortly after 6:00 p.m. ET. Not 10 minutes later Crooks opened fire, the moment caught on tape as Trump said “Oh,” raised his hand to his right ear, before looking at it and crouching to the ground. The Secret Service then rushed the stage to whisk the former president away. One spectator was killed and others were wounded.
Hours later, some of the Utahns in the park had been offline and hadn’t heard the news. Others were just trying to process it.
“Thank God that … he's still alive. We're getting different territory here between politics,” said Ricky Reynosa of West Valley City. “There’s families involved and it breaks my heart.”
In the aftermath of the rally shooting both Trump and President Joe Biden sought to lower the temperature by calling for unity. Biden asked the country not to “make assumptions” about the shooter's motives or affiliations. “Unity is the most elusive goal of all,” he added, while urging the public to strive for it.
Salt Lake City’s Brett Pyle, however, was less convinced in the moment that the rhetoric would change.
“I think that side’s gonna use it … as a weapon because it happened to them. I don't think it's going to draw us closer.”
Still, voters will have to grapple with the aftermath of the shooting and what it will mean for a presidential campaign that has already been upended by the Democratic Party’s debate over Biden’s ability to remain in the race. While Utah is a reliable conservative vote, the state, with its large Latter-day Saint influence, hasn’t warmed to Trump or his political movement.
“Who knows,” wondered Chloe Flowers of South Jordan. “Maybe open people's eyes and know that we don't want this. I don't want him as my president. I don't want him in charge. I don't want anybody who has those ideas in charge.”
Another parkgoer saw a different outcome, one where he wouldn’t be surprised if the former president “won all 50 states now.”
“I feel like it had the complete opposite effect of whoever was trying to, you know, whoever was trying to kill him,” said Trey Thayer of American Fork. “Cause I think, yeah, so many people are gonna rally around him now.”
Salt Lake resident Jann Haworth saw this as part of the challenge for this generation.
“Each age has its Armageddon,” she said, referring to issues around climate change and the state of politics. “I think with the 24-hour news feed, where we have a constant drip feed of extreme circumstances, and we are, I believe, a better-informed electorate than perhaps we ever have been, but it's a test of democracy because the electorate is also armed.”
Utah political leaders called it a dark day for America. Republicans and Democrats alike — from Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and Speaker of the Utah House Mike Schultz to Utah House Democratic Leader Angela Romero and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brian King — agreed that political violence is unacceptable.
“It is imperative we uphold non-violence as a fundamental principle,” Utah Senate President Stuart Adams posted to X, formerly Twitter, “regardless of our political differences.”
Gov. Spencer Cox reiterated the message he’s long tried to deliver with his Disagree Better campaign.
“In light of the assassination attempt on Pres. Trump, I think it’s more important today than it was two days ago,” Cox said, reposting his closing remarks to the National Governors Association’s 2024 meeting in Salt Lake City. “It’s about building and optimism and hope. It’s about loving our country and doing the hard work of bridge building.”
My closing message to my fellow governors. In light of the assassination attempt on Pres. Trump, I think it’s more important today than it was two days ago. It’s about building and optimism and hope. It’s about loving our country and doing the hard work of bridge building. I make… pic.twitter.com/hozSH6N1B7
— Spencer Cox (@SpencerJCox) July 14, 2024
Even so, in a nod to the national mood, Mishael Ochu of Salt Lake wasn’t surprised based on the reactions to Trump and the “amount of anger he instills.” But Ochu landed on the same calls for civility that have rung in Utah and around the country.
“Before it wasn’t that important to be so political, and … you kind of just want to bring it down to local. And when you're with people, we're actually a lot more alike than we are different.”
KUER’s Jim Hill and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
