LONGVIEW, Texas — Observers are comparing former President Donald Trump's assassination attempt to the shooting of Ronald Reagan in 1981, but political experts say there's a major difference
"Reagan was in office, it wasn’t in the middle of a political campaign, the assassination attempt wasn’t really political in nature, Hinckley obviously had a lot of mental health issues and so that changed the tenure of it," LeTourneau University political science professor John Barrett said.
Barrett says the political climate today is much more polarized than it was in 1981 when Reagan was shot. Barrett equates the division in America today to the late 1960s.
"At that time over the Vietnam war, you have the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and so I think that is the better parallel because those attempts obviously were successful but really rationed up the level of intensity of political conflict and rhetoric," Barrett said.
The question now is what happens moving forward.
"My concern with this is even though it was unsuccessful, nevertheless it is going to bring more pressure to the country where it's very divided and there's a lot of intensity in the political rhetoric," Barrett said.
In the wake of the attack on Reagan back in the early 80's, he saw a huge groundswell of support and his approval rating reached nearly 70%. Barrett says it's possible Trump may experience a similar political boost.
"It's human nature where you tend to rally around someone when you think they’re threatened and so it wouldn't surprise me if Trump sees a result in this," Barrett said.