The shooting at former President Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania Saturday brings back memories of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy leaning over dying President John F. Kennedy as Secret Service agent Clint Hill climbs on back of car in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Here we are again.

November 22, 1963. April 4, 1968, June 5, 1968, March 30, 1981.

July 13, 2024.

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Former president Donald Trump flinches, grabs his head, falls. Secret Service agents jump on the victim, the car speeds off to the hospital. A would-be assassin, it seems, fired a shot through the former president's right ear. The video is hauntingly reminiscent of the Zapruder film, the 8mm home movie.

Horror.

Again.

Trump was not killed, but we appear to have been millimeters from yet another public political execution — one that the nation would have experienced collectively. Shocked, traumatized, changed forever.

Again.

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At this writing, we don’t know what or who or why. We do know that the alleged shooter was killed, another person in the crowd was killed, and other people were seriously injured.

For his part, Trump, his face bloodied, raised his fist through the tangle of Secret Service agents, and appeared to yell, “Fight! Fight!”

Fight what? I will forgive the man for this reaction, for it appears he had been shot seconds........

© San Francisco Chronicle