Consider This from NPR

Shortly after 6pm on Saturday, a would-be assassin took aim at former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump and two others were injured and one person was killed before the Secret Service shot and killed the alleged gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Crooks was a registered Republican but gave $15 to a progressive Political Action Committee in 2021. Law enforcement has yet to identify a motive or an ideology.

For the first time in decades, a presidential candidate has been the target of an assassination plot. How might Saturday's events affect an already divided America?

Author and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin discusses what history can teach us about this moment.

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In the weeks since Biden's disastrous performance in the presidential debate, a steady drip of high-profile supporters – everyone from members of Congress, to big donors like George Clooney – has urged him to step aside.

They're worried he's too old for a second term, and too vulnerable to losing to Trump.

President Biden rejects those calls. He believes he can withstand a bruising campaign, win re-election, and lead the country for four more years.

Last fall, Consider This host Scott Detrow traveled to western Pennsylvania — a key swing state — where he gathered a group of voters all around the same age as Biden and Trump, to talk about how they viewed age in the race.

This week, Detrow checked back in with some of them to see if recent events have changed how this group of key voters are thinking about President Biden.

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Palmer Luckey launched his first tech company as a teenager. That was Oculus, the virtual reality headset for gaming. Soon after, he sold it to Facebook for $2 billion.

Now 31, Luckey has a new company called Anduril that's making Artificial Intelligence weapons. The Pentagon is buying them – keeping some for itself and sending others to Ukraine.

The weapons could be instrumental in helping Ukraine stand up to Russia.

Ukraine needs more weapons – and better weapons – to fight against Russia. Could AI weapons made by a billionaire tech entrepreneur's company hold the answer?

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Four years after World War II, leaders from Europe and North America formed an alliance largely aimed at deterring Soviet expansion — the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — NATO.

Seventy-five years later the member states of that organization have come together in Washington to celebrate NATO and plan for its future.

As they did in 1949, the NATO allies believe Russia presents the largest security threat to their world order. The immediate threat is Russia's war with Ukraine, but the allies also worry about the future of America's leadership.

Eight diplomats from the nations closest to Russia weigh in on the threat the country poses to them and the world order.

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Former President Trump derided Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer as "the woman in Michigan," when the two publicly clashed in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.

A Detroit rapper once put out a song about her called "Big Gretch" praising her handling of the pandemic.

Whitmer's star soared during the pandemic with people being attracted to her human, pragmatic style.

These days she's a national co-chair of the Biden-Harris campaign while simultaneously being touted a possible replacement for Biden on the ticket. Whitmer herself says that's not happening.

As Democrats scramble to figure out a way forward this election year, Whitmer talks about her new memoir "True Gretch", and what the future may hold for both her and her party.

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On June 27th, long-simmering concerns about President Biden's age – and whether he's fit to serve a second term – exploded after a disastrous debate performance.

Biden has been trying to clean up the mess ever since. First at a fiery rally in North Carolina. And some ten days after the debate in a one-on-one interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

Neither event accomplished the goal of shoring up support for Biden, and now members of Congress are questioning whether the 46th President should remain the democratic nominee.

Evan Osnos, New Yorker staff writer and author of a biography on Joe Biden, weighs in on the Biden campaign at a crossroads.

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California recently allocated $12 million for reparations for the state's Black residents as a way to compensate them for the harm caused by the legacy of slavery and current discrimination.

Although it's not clear what the money will be spent on, it is clear it won't be directed toward cash payments at the moment, which many in the reparations movement say is the best way to atone for the legacy and harm of slavery.

NPR's Adrian Florido speaks with NPR race and identity correspondent Sandhya Dirks about the latest on California's attempts to lead the way on reparations.

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Students with disabilities often face a tough time getting the services they need at school. When they can't get them, many families seek help from the federal government. And, right now, the Department of Education is swamped with a record number of discrimination complaints. The backlog is leaving families across the country waiting months, even years, for help.

NPR's Jonaki Mehta visited one such family, in central Georgia

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Extreme wildfires doubled worldwide over the last two decades, according to a new study of NASA satellite data.

You'd think, if the wildfire crisis is getting worse, there'd be more and more firefighters in place to meet that demand. But at agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, adequate staffing has been a huge challenge.

But as organizations like the Forest Service raise alarm about firefighter shortages, there's also a whole group of people who are trained to fight fires and are struggling to get jobs in the field: formerly incarcerated people.

We hear from Royal Ramey, a formerly incarcerated firefighter who started an organization to help others build firefighting careers once they're released from prison.

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This year, more than half the world's population lives in countries that are choosing leaders. And those choices will tell us a lot about the state of democracy around the world.

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