Sam Donaldson was the absolute worst. He was there when Reagan got shot and was later quoted by associates expressing private disappointment that the wounds weren’t fatal. He was a scumbag’s scumbag.
I also vividly remember the day Reagan was shot; also my senior year in college. The reason I remember it so well other than the obvious reason is I was a senior at Indiana University, and IU was scheduled to play North Carolina for the NCAA basketball championship that night. We did not know if the game would be played or not. It was; I still have the front page of the Bloomington paper the next day on the wall of my office. Two headlines: “Hoosiers NCAA Champs” and “Reagan Condition Excellent After Surgeons Remove Bullet.”
And Sam Donaldson was evil. He even looked evil with that creepy bizarre lopsided head of his. I never believed a word he said.