The assassination attempt on Donald Trump has rocked the US. But in New York, at least, locals are coming to terms with the shock in the best way they know how: copious amounts of beers, wines and spirits.
“When the news happened everyone came in for booze. There was a rush on,” a staff member in a New York bottle shop told news.com.au.
In the hours afterwards, on the humid summer scorched streets, cars continued to beep and subway trains continued to screech. New York normal.
But outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, people gathered with Trump flags and MAGA hats.
“I don’t know why people are doing these bad things. If you don’t like the guy, leave him alone. If you like the guy, show support. It’s plain and simple,” Long Island resident Mohit Kumar told CBS.
Others were already moving on. “It’s just a little nick,” one passer-by said to news.com.au referring to Mr Trump’s bloodied ear.
The New York way is to shrug these things off.
Yet the nonchalance and dark humour is surface. It masks shock, bafflement, resignation and some fear of what comes next.
And maybe there’s something else – a realisation that the polarised public debate in the US, of dehumanising opponents, may have been a factor in this.
That maybe that should stop. Let’s see how long that sentiment lasts.
The first thing to hit people in the US has been the shock that someone tried to kill a candidate for president.
A sunny day in rural Pennsylvania did not seem like the stage for such a brutal act. And yet one bystander is dead and, it appears, a former and possible future president was a few millimetres from serious injury or death himself.
The TV in the US is now 24/7 Trump.
The usual Saturday night fare of true crime series 48 Hours and quiz show The Weakest Link have been set aside for an endless replaying of that now iconic footage of Mr Trump reacting to something on his ear, red trickling down and then him diving for the floor before the triumphant fist in the air.
Bafflement and resignation
There is bafflement about how this could have happened.
The Secret Service may have reacted quickly but how on earth was it possible for a presidential candidate – days out from his official nomination at the Republican National Convention – to be almost gunned down?
The suspected shooter was reportedly lying on a shed outside the perimeter of the event.
Seemingly it was too far away for the authorities to keep an eye on.
And yet close enough for bystanders, who had gathered to listen to the event, to warn police about what was about to happen.
“I’m standing there pointing at (the shooter) for two, three minutes,” a bystander told the BBC.
“Secret Service is looking at us … just standing there, and next thing you know, five shots ring out”.
And there is resignation too. That while it’s been more the 60 years since President John F Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas, it was bound to happen again.
And again it did, with the death of JFK’s brother Robert F Kennedy who was shot while campaigning a few years later.
Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama also survived shootings.
This is after all a place where guns proliferate and shootings happen so frequently even ones involving children quickly slip from the headlines.
The New York Times has reported that Mr Trump’s children have been concerned about his safety from the moment he started his presidential campaign in 2015.
The sentiment in the US is that the person may be notable but a shooting is depressingly familiar.
Politicians from across the floor have been universal in their condemnation of a violent attack against a politician.
President Joe Biden said it was “sick” and he’d like to speak to “Donald”. He hasn’t called him by his first name in quite some time.
“We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this,” Mr Biden said.
‘We need more respect’
Perhaps this could be a watershed moment that has a positive outcome?
That both sides of politics can at least agree to disagree?
That America doesn’t have to fall into a deep well of hatred just because the person next to you intends to vote for a different candidate?
“We need more respect and more civil conversations,” said former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Saturday evening. A politician who was sacked by his own party for not being partisan enough.
One of those key in Mr McCarthy’s ousting was firebrand congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
She wasn’t building any bridges after the shooting.
“Democrats wanted this to happen,” she wrote on Twitter/X.
“They’ve wanted Trump gone for years and they’re prepared to do anything to make that happen.”
In the darker recesses of the internet, some are baying for blood. With little information known about who the shooter was they were still busy creating fear among their followers of perceived enemies, real or not
Trump has survived his “nick” and intends to head to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week to accept the party’s nomination.
That event was supposed to be an upbeat celebration by the party faithful.
But something else has descended over the US now. And no one’s quite sure how the after effects of this assassination attempt will play out. \
