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How did political violence become so common?

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom

Published April 28, 2026 at 10:47 AM CDT

From left, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Acting Assistant Director for the Criminal Investigative Division at the FBI, Darren Cox, speak during a news conference at the Department of Justice, Monday April 27, 2026, in Washington, following the initial appearance in federal court of the suspected White House Correspondents Dinner gunman, Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, Calif. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

A man is charged after trying to attack President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. But experts say focusing on a single incident misses the bigger picture; threats against public officials are rising across parties, and the U.S. is in a heightened threat environment driven by politics and deeper forces shaping modern violence.

Here & Now‘s Indira Lakshmanan speaks with political violence researcher Jacob Ware.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.