By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain voice
Some 43 years ago a small child in Yuma, Colo., on the far Eastern Plains of the state would end his days in prayer for President Ronald Reagan’s health after a would-be assassin’s bullet hospitalized him.
That was 1981. Today, that small child is known as former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, who once again finds himself in prayer for a President and the nation.
“My mother tells the story,” Gardner said. “She says I prayed every night for President Reagan and Mr. Brady. I’m now 49 years old praying the same prayer.”
He never expected another assassination attempt in America, or to personally know the President who was shot.
“It is a despicable and vile act of cowardice,” Gardner said, reflecting on the shooting and intended assassination of President Donald J. Trump at a campaign rally Saturday. “But for the slight turn of [the President’s] head, we would all be looking at a horrific global crisis.”
Gardner is among a very few Coloradans to have stood exactly where Mr. Trump was standing Saturday when a .223-caliber bullet fired from an AR-style rifle from an elevated position just 140 yards away — well within the bullet’s effective range — missed it’s presumed target and grazed the President’s ear. Gardner was seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2019 when Mr. Trump invited him on stage and to the podium to address a crowd gathered at a similar rally in Colorado Springs’ Broadmoor World Arena.
“When you are at that podium, the last thing on your mind is this,” Gardner said. “You are talking to the crowd. You are interacting with people who have common values.”
He has not spoken with Mr. Trump since the shooting, but has with those surrounding the President. Gardner had formerly led a Super PAC for presidential hopeful Tim Scott of South Carolina, still a vice-presidential hopeful.
“We’re all very shocked, but very grateful for the President,” Gardner said. “We are very heartbroken for the loss of life. It is just hard to imagine this country facing this level of violence.”
The assassination has “no political stripes”, Gardner said: “It is wrong. We need to take a deep look at ourselves.”
Once considered to be among the most bipartisan members of the U.S. Senate, Gardner is joining Trump and others in a call for national unity.
“We have got to get to the point where we can disagree, not in a disagreeable way but in a courteous way,” Gardner said. “We can vote against someone and not want them dead. We can have different perspectives. All of us have a job to work to listen more to each other.”
Gardner is headed to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he likely will interact with Mr. Trump.
“I think we were going to see a fairly unified convention to begin with. Now, I feel we’ll have a much more impactful convention in terms of unity,” Gardner said. “This will be one of the more important conventions of our time.”
He offered analysis on the meaning behind a Tic-Toc video post of Mr. Trump some may have seen of the President golfing on Sunday after being shot in the ear by a would-be assassin on Saturday.
“I think the message from President Trump is life goes on,” Gardner said. “We are not a divided nation, we are a conflicted nation. [President] Abraham Lincoln said a house divided can not stand. A conflicted nation can heal and come back together.”
Gardner is hopeful that begins now.