This week started out with a shock. At a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, someone tried to assassinate Donald Trump, sending speculation and fear around the Internet and the media about the threat of political violence. As he was hustled off the stage by the Secret Service, the former president, blood running down his face, pumped his fist in the air, leaving a lasting image for all of us to chew on. Nation Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote the day after the violence, that “Donald Trump and those wounded and killed deserve our sympathy and concern,” but we must also remember “that getting shot does not ennoble the target or transform victims into moral leaders.”

Trump showed up at the Republican National Convention just days after the event with a bandage on his ear and a troubling announcement that Ohio Senator JD Vance would be his running mate for the upcoming election. “Conversion seems to be an integral element of his personality,” Jeet Heer wrote this week of Vance, who not only became a Catholic just five years ago but has also completely abandoned his never-Trumpism, for obvious reasons. During his speech at the RNC, Vance attempted to appeal to voters through his working-class upbringing and anti-elitist position. But let us not be fooled, Chris Lehmann urged, writing from the convention floor, for “much of Vance’s seat-of-the-pants critique of the American political economy is distinctly blurry and self-serving.”

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party continues to fumble and fight, as several top party leaders, including former president Barack Obama, have raised concerns about Biden’s staying in the race. Many top Democrats are warning that the president, who recently contracted Covid-19, doesn’t have what it takes to beat Trump in 2024. So why, Jeet Heer asked, are progressives still pushing for his ticket? “The congressional left is taking a big risk,” he writes, “but there is no safe option right now, and nothing dishonorable about their leap in the dark.”

-Alana Pockros

Engagement Editor, The Nation