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People across the United States and Harlan County were shocked, dismayed and angered when an individual attempted to assassinate former President and current Presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, July, 13.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley addressed the matter via his social media outlets.

“As we all start our Sunday, reflecting on the heinous act of Saturday, I am thankful this morning that God had his hedge of protection around President Trump,” Mosley wrote. “I am deeply saddened for the families of those who lost loved ones as a result of this incident in Pennsylvania and pray for peace and comfort for them. Continue to pray for those critically injured at the event.”

Mosley expressed his hopes for change.

“My prayer for the rest of us today is that we begin to see each other through the eyes of God and not through the eyes of our imperfect jaded flesh. We are all humans that sin, fail, and come short of the glory of God daily. Political ideology differences shouldn’t lead to hate and violence. I would encourage you today, that if you’ve fallen out with someone over such differences, call them and apologize, agree to not talk politics, and only focus on what made you friends, family, or neighbors in the first place. The world is too divided and if anything good comes out of yesterday, I pray it is an awakening that we need to be more United.”

Mosley ended his post with a quote attributed to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate… Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. – Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Mosley wrote.

Harlan County Magistrate Bill Moore expressed his thoughts on the assassination attempt, calling for civility when faced with disagreement.

“I think it’s sad that America has resorted to this type of action…this is not what America is about,” Moore said. “I agree with those who have been on the news saying when we have a problem we need to resolve it at the ballot box, not through anger and assassination or anything of that nature. My thoughts and prayers are with the Trump family as well as the families of the one who lost his life and the ones who were injured.”

For Magistrate Paul Browning, the assassination attempt brought back some negative memories.

“President Trump’s attempted assassination hits a little closer to home for me,” Browning said. “My father was murdered during a campaign when he was seeking office.”

Browning said when he heard of the assassination attempt involving Trump, his thoughts first focused on the family of those impacted.

“My thoughts turned to his son Barron and other situations first,” Browning said. “My son was three years old when my dad died, and I’m grateful he wasn’t old enough to have a lot of memories of that. That was a tough pill to swallow as a family.”

Browning would like to see an end to these types of incidents.

“It’s a crazy world that we live in for something like that to happen,” Browning said. “I always hope we move beyond things like that…it’s a very strange set of affairs that someone can be seeking an office to be a public servant, and someone can feel so threatened by it that they feel the need to kill you. I don’t know what that says about the state of our country or our area. We’re in the greatest country on the planet, but there are some things that are very disheartening, and certainly this is one of them.”

According to Moore, the United States needs prayers.

“God is the only hope for our country,” Moore said. “We need to pray harder than we’ve ever prayed.”