America’s political system is under stress as voters and their leaders navigate unfamiliar terrain

FLINT, Michigan — The FBI is investigating suspicious packages sent to election officials in more than a dozen states. State Police have begun inspecting schools in an Ohio community where conspiracy theories have fueled bomb threatsViolent rhetoric is buzzing through social media.

And for the second time in nine weeks, a shooter apparently tried to murder Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

This year’s White House campaign was already going to be fraught, the first presidential election to take place in the aftermath of a riot at the US Capitolan act of political violence steeped in the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

But the series of nerve-wracking developments has crystallized the volatility sweeping across the country in the final weeks of the 2024 campaign. A political system long praised for its resilience and durability is being tested, with law enforcement, political leaders and voters navigating complex and unfamiliar terrain.

In Flint, the city in Michigan where a polluted water crisis Nearly a decade ago, it became a symbol of government incompetence. Some who gathered for a Trump event this week seemed almost resigned to a new and dangerous normal.

“I think it will probably happen again,” John Trahan, 62, of Grand Blanc, Michigan, said of the prospect of another assassination attempt.

America has faced harrowing challenges before, from the Civil War to a presidential election decided by the Supreme Court. There were two assassinations and a wave of deadly riots before the 1968 presidential election.

But presidential historian Douglas Brinkley of Rice University said the moment is notable because it combines widespread distrust of government with the proliferation of conspiracy theories online. Before a gunman camped outside a Florida golf course where Trump was playing on Sunday, the Republican campaign spread a debunked rumor that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets.

“There is a sense of uncertainty in the country,” Brinkley said, and the incident in West Palm Beach “adds fuel to an already tense election where democracy is at stake.”

The Internet provides much of that fuel. The Libertarian Party of New Hampshire posted on social media early Sunday morning that “anyone who murders Kamala Harris would be an American hero.” The group removed the post without fully condemning the political violence.

“We are not ‘nonviolent,’” the group wrote in a post Monday. “It is morally correct to use violence to stop aggression.”

Elon Musk, the owner of X, shared a false report on Wednesday that explosives had been found at a Trump rally. Hours earlier, Musk posted: “Unless Trump is elected, America will fall to tyranny.” Earlier in the week, he had written that “no one is even trying to kill Biden/Kamala.”

Musk later deleted the tweet about the murder, suggesting he was joking, but not before tens of millions of people had read the post.

Despite everything, the presidential campaign continues and Election Day, November 5, is approaching.

Harris quickly condemned the Florida incident and called Trump to offer her support. Democrats in Washington are joining Republicans in calling for stronger security around the former president.

But Harris’ team is not softening its warning that a second Trump presidency poses a threat to democracy. During a interview Speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists on Tuesday, Harris noted that Trump is not alone in his concerns about security.

“There are far too many people in our country who don’t feel safe right now,” Harris said. “Not everyone has Secret Service.”

“LGBTQ members don’t feel safe right now, immigrants or people of immigrant backgrounds don’t feel safe right now,” she continued. “Women don’t feel safe right now.”

Trump and some of his allies, meanwhile, continue to sow division, a marked shift from his brief calls for unity immediately after the attempted assassination at a Pennsylvania rally in July.

Fox News Digital published comments in which Trump, without evidence, blamed the Democratic president Joe Biden and Harris for the weekend incident on his golf course, suggesting that their criticism of him had driven the alleged shooter. Trump then posted on X that Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, was a communist and “has taken politics in our country to a whole new level of hate, abuse and distrust.”

“Because of this communist leftist rhetoric, the bullets are flying and it’s only going to get worse!” Trump warned.

Harris condemned the foiled attack on Trump and had a brief phone call with him on Tuesday in which she expressed gratitude that he was safe and condemned political violence. Trump described the conversation as “very nice.”

With early voting already underway in some states, more potential challenges lie ahead. FBI and other federal agencies said Wednesday that Iranian hackers tried to interest Biden’s campaign in information stolen from Trump’s campaign, sending unsolicited emails to people associated with the president before he suspended his campaign in July.

There is no evidence that any of the recipients responded, officials said, but the development nevertheless raises concerns about foreign interference in the election.

Harris’ campaign said it has been cooperating with law enforcement since it learned that people with ties to Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails. But Trump’s campaign responded by pressuring Harris and Biden to “come clean about whether they used the hacked materials that they got from the Iranians to hurt President Trump.”

On the ground in Michigan, Trump’s loyalists have embraced his anger. In some cases, they are afraid.

Kathy Hutchons, 68, of Waterford, Michigan, said the threat of further violence against Trump was “pretty scary.”

Her friends in line outside Trump’s Flint town hall said they were scanning trees for signs of a threat, and they eyed the drone overhead with suspicion, though security officials later confirmed it was one of their security measures.

“My husband said, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to let you go here today,'” Hutchons said. “I said, ‘You don’t have a choice.'”

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Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington, Michelle L. Price in New York and AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.