TEMPLE, Texas — It has been an eventful week in American politics.
On Saturday, July 13, a gunman attempted to assassinate former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, killing one attendee and injuring two others.
A little over a week later on Sunday, July 21, President Joe Biden announced that he would be stepping down from the current presidential race, despite having repeatedly pushed back against calls for him to do so.
6 News Reporter Sydney Dishon spoke to Southern Methodist University (SMU) Political Science Professor Cal Jillson about how unique these events were, and what they could mean for the future.
Jillson said the leadup to Biden's withdrawal has also been historic, as even members of his own party began calling for him to drop out of the upcoming election amid questions of his fitness for office, especially after his performance at a debate with Trump.
"That is absolutely distinctive in American history, to have a political party come out against its nominee for president when that nominee is an incumbent sitting president and force that candidate to withdraw in favor of another candidate," Jillson told 6 News.
The last sitting president to step out of a race was Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, who announced he would not seek re-election in March after a single state's primary.
Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated in the nation's history. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, James Garfield was assassinated in 1881, William McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
Attempts have also been made on the lives of other sitting presidents, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, as well as presidential candidates and other politicians, such as Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head in 2011.
Jillson said there were "flaws in the protective scheme" that allowed the gunman to get close enough to take a shot at Trump, saying Trump was "very fortunate" to have only been hit in the ear and not be more seriously injured.
"People obviously remember John Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, having been assassinated, but we have never had a President nominated by his party this close to Election Day withdraw in favor of another candidate, in this case, Vice President Kamala Harris," said Jillson.
Jillson told 6 News there have been other instances of internal struggles within political parties, such as in the election of 1800, when Federalist Alexander Hamilton opposed incumbent Federalist President John Adams, but not to the extent that America has seen this election cycle.
"We've never had an incumbent president, who had already largely won his party's nomination for another term for us withdraw," Jillson told 6 News. "So very unusual circumstances."
Jillson also said that while Biden's withdrawal was more unprecedented than the assassination attempt, the signs leading up to it were more evident.
"I was less surprised by Biden's withdrawal because it was a slow motion train wreck over nearly a month, from the time that Biden stumbled badly in the debate with Donald Trump to the time that he was forced to withdraw," said Jillson. "So you could see it coming."
Jillson told 6 News that if Kamala Harris replaces Biden as the Democratic nominee, she will have access to the money raised by the Biden/Harris campaign as part of the existing ticket, but that only time will tell what the future may hold.
"It's really how well Harris launches, and whether that launch continues to settle democratic nerves and get them into a clean convention to present Harris as their candidate," said Jillson.
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