“I’m tired of the division. I’m tired of people talking about Trump and Biden,” the country singer said
Cody Johnson, the Texas country singer who signed to Warner Nashville and parlayed his regional fame into national hits like “Dirt Cheap,” paused his headlining set at Saturday’s Windy City Smokeout Festival in Chicago to address the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump earlier that evening at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
While some country artists like John Rich chose to stoke conspiracy theories online or, like Kid Rock, thump their chest, in the hours after the shooting, Johnson made a bipartisan emotional plea for unity and offered a reminder of the sacrifices that members of the American military and first responders have made throughout history. He also condemned the attack on Trump that left a rally attendee dead (the shooter was also killed).
“The fact that any American citizen would think that what they did today would solve a problem in this country is absolutely disgusting. You want to solve a problem in this country, on Election Day go in there and vote for who you want,” Johnson said. “Because before most of you were born, an American soldier died for you to have the right to disagree with somebody else.”
Johnson went on to call out both Trump and President Biden by name — the crowd booed at mention of the latter — when talking about the tribalism that has come to define American politics. “I’m tired of the hatred. I’m tired of the division. I’m tired of people talking about Trump and Biden,” he said. “There are people in this crowd that agree with Trump. There are people in this crowd that agree with Biden…. That is your God-given American right to believe what you want.”
Johnson also led the crowd in a rendition of “God Bless America” and talked about his own upbringing. In the end, however, his most impassioned statement was about national accord. “I don’t give a damn who you vote for and I don’t give a damn about how you feel about what’s on the news,” he said. “Only three things I give a damn about tonight are, red, white, and blue.”