This is a good question. It was asked so often at public meetings that it became a joke starting in Vaudeville days. It's not a joke any more.
There was at least one doctor in the house, at the rally that Saturday. Reporting identifies him by name, a surgeon taking pictures with his cellphone. Apparently the former president was taken away before the doctor could see him.
When Gabby Gifford and President Reagan were shot, they were both taken to the hospital. So was the former president on Saturday, according to reporting. But the reports are confusing and incomplete. One report has it that he was "taken to a local hospital from the rally site." His spokesperson says that he was "being checked out at a local medical facility." What an odd way to describe a hospital, by the way, "medical facility."
All of these statements are incomplete because they do not tell us the name of the hospital where he was taken. Seems like we should know. When President Reagan was shot, he had been put into the presidential limousine where a Secret Service agent ordered the limo driver to proceed to the hospital. We know the name of the hospital, of course. It's not a state secret or a secret of any kind, and it should not be a secret.
It's published right on the website of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: George Washington Hospital.
So a good question is a simple one: What is the name of the hospital where he was taken?
Here's another: Who treated him, whether at the hospital or at the rally? Seems like we should know. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library has a long list of everyone who was around when the President was shot, including the names and workplaces of the doctors who treated him.
As a rally, this was of course a gathering. It was in Butler, Pennsylvania. A permit is required to hold a public gathering. The permit would require the presence and show the identity of Paramedics on scene. The permit here would have been issued either by Butler Township or by Butler County. Pull the permit and see what it tells you.
Then there is the question that so far as I know has been raised by only one person, Ruth Ben-Ghiat. She wondered about it in the course of taking a look at authoritarian playbooks including attempted assassinations, so she did not dwell on it but she is the only one I know who asked the question. Why did the same Secret Service agents who had surrounded him, protecting him with their bodies as shields from any bullets that might still be fired, allow him to stop and stand not once but twice on the way to the SUV, and the second time "expose his face, arm, and hand to the cameras and crowd, and deliver the fist pump and 'fight, fight, fight' message that created an iconic image." Or as she herself framed it, "Why the Secret Service allowed him to do these things, in violation of any conceivable security protocols for such moments, is another story."
Now would be a good time to get the answer: Why did the Secret Service violate any conceivable security protocols for such moments?
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