TRANSCRIPT: INTERVIEW WITH EMILY ANDERSON, ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF FORMER US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, 14 JULY 2024.

SUBJECTS: ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF FORMER US PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP.

STARTS: 3:25pm
ENDS:3:37pm
E&OE:

EMILY ANDERSON:

In your post on Twitter/X you mentioned that the incident with Trump this morning changes the entire US Election campaign. What did you mean by that?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, it does change the entire dynamics because you've already seen the Biden camp, the Democrats, have pulled all their advertising in relation to former President Trump. They have withdrawn negative advertising about him that apparently was scheduled to run on TV networks across America et cetera. So, I mean, it just stands to reason that this will embolden the Republican cause. Donald Trump will use this, I mean, you saw how defiant he was moments after the attempt on his life.

He was fist pumping the air, mouthing the words or shouting them out, “Fight, fight, fight”. You know, we've got an American President who is sadly looking very old, very fragile and you've got his opponent now very much, looking strong, even when somebody attempts to kill him, he jumps straight back on his feet. And his thoughts –the first thought he has – is "Fight, fight, fight". The two camps couldn't be any more polarised than what they are right at this instant after this assassination attempt.

EMILY ANDERSON:

That's a good point, a very good point. What's your response to the attack?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Oh, it's vile, it's terrible, and look I don't disagree with the Australian Prime Minister when he actually talked about the protests outside electorate offices, plural in Australia. Because there's so much angst in the world in local communities and it's unnecessary. And even yesterday I had an email from somebody saying that they were saddened that Colin Bettles, my former staff member, had been injured overseas. And they were actually expressing condolences because they thought he'd been killed and saying it's a shame it's not you, you grub. I mean, this is what is now happening very regularly. Once upon a time, there was the occasional message that was quite contemptible. You'd get maybe one a year now it's almost one every other day. And some of them are threats and some of them are very concerning threats. And then you've got people walking around the streets of Wagga Wagga posting terrible things in shopfront windows, screaming “baby killer” at their local Federal representative. Why is there so much hatred in the world? I mean, we can't from Wagga Wagga, change what's happening in the Middle East.

We can only be responsible for our own actions, what we say and what we do. And I just find that people's lack of care and understanding and knowledge of history is quite bizarre and quite worrying. The amount of hatred is quite disturbing. Then they just twist and turn everything to their own ends, and then make out as if they're the normal ones, that everybody else is obsessive, when they're, you know, following their local representative around, yelling at them, going on to every single one of their posts, commenting vile comments, following, trying to write comments on their family's own social media posts. And I'm not making this all about me, this is happening to other Federal representatives as well and quite frankly, the AFP I know are worried. The Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader are worried, I'm worried. The world is in a very troubled place at the moment and people can't blame Donald Trump for this. Social media has a lot to answer for, people's attitudes have a lot to answer for, and the lack of respect. It starts at homes, it continues through workplaces, through schools. I mean, this person who allegedly tried to kill the US President, if you do the maths, would have been about 12 or 13 when Donald Trump took the White House office.

I mean, what sort of what’s been going on in that person's mind and the people around him to make him want to do that? It's just beggars belief, I mean, it's sad for a democracy – it truly is. It’s terrible that the world has got to this stage, there's been attempts and obviously, successful ones in US Presidents’ lives in the past. This isn't the way democracy should run.

EMILY ANDERSON:

What should the Australian Government's response be to it?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, I think Anthony Albanese made some quite pertinent remarks when he said we all should show a little bit more respect and he said it starts with people wanting to rally outside political electorate offices. I mean, quite frankly even in Wagga Wagga, if you added up the number of hours wasted outside my electorate office over the many, many Sundays that this has been occurring since those atrocious and deadly attacks on innocent lives on October 7. If those people just bothered to do spend their time doing good for the community, as in maybe volunteering for organisations that could actually help the community rather than expressing their hatred outside my office in the name of peace. I mean, it is quite a misnomer, their organisation. How much better would our local community be? And it's not just my community, it's actual electorate offices and electorates and cities and towns right across Australia. And I'm not trying to make this all about myself and I would appreciate you making this quote, the Prime Minister said it and others have said it. You know, there is quite a worrying and disturbing trend about people and their nutty behaviour on social media that they need to take a good, long, hard look at themselves and they need to sort of also think my upbringing; was probably better than this, and yet here I am expressing hatred towards “My local representative who doesn't do anything but try to do good for the community”. It starts with little seeds of protest and hatred like this and then it develops into what we've seen in Pennsylvania today.

EMILY ANDERSON:

So how should people treat democracy then?

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Well, behave a bit better. Think about how lucky they are to live in countries where you can express yourself in a free and democratic way and respect that and stop trying to sow the seeds of hatred in your local communities, which only develops into the sort of hatred and violence that we saw in Butler, Pennsylvania, today.

The other thing, too, is I feel desperately sorry for the innocent victims who turned up to that rally and have either been critically injured or worse …. lost their lives as a result of just turning up to hear a political candidate express his view in what should have been an open-air rally in a peaceful way, in a peaceful setting, at a farm sort of situation. I mean, it was a farming rally as has been described.

EMILY ANDERSON:

I mean, how far is Australia on something like this? I mean, we don't have their gun laws.

MICHAEL McCORMACK:

Thank goodness, and that's the other thing is as one American political analyst said to me today, you know I think it's time we woke up to the fact that our gun laws are probably a little too free.

And I've always thought that I mean, Tim Fischer did an amazing job in conjunction with John Howard to limit the amount of guns. And yes, law-abiding citizens should be able to have guns, farmers of course, et cetera, and people who want to participate in sports. But in America, it's just you can walk into a shop and just buy a gun off the shelf over the over-the-counter.

I mean, that's simply not good enough and, you know, I think it's time when you see those school shootings and you see the homicide rate across large cities and small towns in America. I think the time has come, enough is enough. Every person doesn't need a to tote a gun on their hip – they just don't. You can't just say self-defence, I mean, you know, if you take the guns away from the mad and bad and sad people in the world, I think the world would be a better place, quite frankly. I know it's the Second Amendment, I get all that, I'm not an American, they are different people than Australians in that regard. But when you when you see somebody as famous as Donald Trump having to endure this who knows, is this the last of it? Who knows? You know, it's an awful situation, an appalling day, one that will go down in our generation as one of the big moments of our time, like the Space Shuttle Challenger, 9-11. You know, there are these moments in time which change the way the world turns. It really simply does, it changes society.

EMILY ANDERSON:

Thank you, Michael.