Secret service agents moments after the 1981 assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan.
Secret service agents moments after the 1981 assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan.
Excerpt: On this day in 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest at the side entrance of the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Avenue by John Hinckley Jr. Reagan was walking to his limousine after a speech to AFL-CIO leaders when Hinckley, 25, who was standing among a group of reporters, fired six shots, hitting Reagan and three others.
Six shots and only got him once and no kill shot. Imagine the world if he been successful.
We could actually never gotten Trump. And definitely no Reganomics.
And no Dubya. I think in a long term view, Dubya was far more destructive than Trump has been so far. That of course could change if he gets reelected.
Trump made the racists and fascists feel confident and united. Trump undermined our allies, all of our institutions, the courts, the judges, the police, the press, anyone who doesn't do exactly what he wants. Dude invited Russia to flood our country with disinformation and conspiracy nonsense in a way that resulted in millions of unnecessary deaths during the pandemic. For a while it was like another September 11th was happening every single day. Even the most conservative numbers for death estimates from COVID are like 15 times the number of Americans who died in Vietnam. Dude tried to deploy troops in America against people who protested things he did. His administration was a formalized system of bribery, nepotism, and influence peddling. He tried to unilaterally pull the US out of NATO. Everyday was a nightmare of chaos and lies.
I've forgotten more horrible shit than I ever remember from the Bush years. Bush was George Washington compared to Trump. You can pin GWB with starting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and manufacturing the consent to get us there, but that's about it. The whole war in Afghanistan is kind of overshadowed by the absolute disaster of the withdrawal, negotiated and agreed to by Trump's administration with the sole purpose of tripping up Biden during his first 100 days, and he sold out our allies and loyalists to do it, not to mention majority of people in Afghanistan that never wanted the Taliban in charge. I agree GWB was the worst president since Andrew Jackson, but Trump is so, so much worse.
Raegan goes down as a martyr, igniting the hearts of die-hard conservatives around the world?
Thankfully he was literally surrounded by good guys with guns preventing….oh.
But surely trained and armed amateurs are the solution to stop shootings because reasons.
The other thing that never seems to get taken into account is that most of the NRA membership wouldn't be able to hit the broad side of a barn if it weren't for the fact that the barn was stationary and not firing back.
They think that proficiency at the shooting range is the same thing as proficiency in combat.
That Uzi came out of nowhere
This photo stands out as long ago helping me to realize nobody is in charge. All the adults, even at the highest levels of our government, are just regular people getting through it as best they can.
Their look of panic and defensive posture, all the intelligence and protection the free world can muster reduced to two agents with an Uzi and a revolver, pointing them at nothing, amidst total chaos.
I've always passively wondered what career choices lead to working these ultra-high level security jobs. What's this guys story? What was he doing before he became Ronald's well dressed uzi man?
Because this is such a well known and documented photo, we actually know the agent’s name was Robert Wanko.
Looking up his obituary provides at least a basic overview. He was a US Army Investigator for the Military Police. I don’t know what that looked like in the 1960s-70s, but in the modern day to be bumped up to an Investigator there are some higher standards than a normal MP, and a requirement of a Secret level clearance. Then he got out of the military, got a college degree, and then got hired by the USSS. He worked on both Carter and Reagan details.
Interesting. Thanks!
I bet that guy would have gotten Jodi Foster's number if he'd been successful
Dude with a boom mic looking bored as hell.
Quaaludes
Unfortunately it was a bad shot
If it was a TV show set in the 1980s and it depicted a scene that look like that you'd say it was unrealistic. That is the most 80s photo I've ever seen everything about it is so stereotypical of action movies of the time.
I just love the fact that the US secret service used Uzi's, a weapon that has always been about form over function I know it works, but there are much better options.
Given that overall length was a major factor, there was a short list of comparable arms that are 18.5 inches or less to choose from.
Ando now he does music on YouTube. John Hinckley I mean, not Reagan
Wishing someone dead is not good, but in Reagan's case it is a moral duty
