President Joe Biden warned on Sunday of the risks of political violence in the US after Saturday’s attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump, saying: “It’s time to cool it down.”
In a prime-time national address from the Oval Office, Mr Biden said political passions can run high but “we must never descend into violence”.
The president acknowledged the passions of an election year, and that he and Republicans offer different policy visions, but implored Americans to “recommit” to resolving their differences peacefully.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence — for any violence. Ever. Period. No exception. We can’t allow this violence to be normalised,” Mr Biden said.
We must stand for an America not of extremism and fury.
But of decency and grace. pic.twitter.com/p5VV7C4BioAdvertisement— President Biden (@POTUS) July 15, 2024
Mr Biden spoke for six minutes in his third address to the nation since Saturday evening’s attack by a shooter that killed one rallygoer and seriously injured two more.
His warning came hours after FBI deputy director Paul Abbate said agents have seen increasingly violent rhetoric online since the attack at the Trump rally.
The president noted that the Republican National Convention (RNC) was opening in Milwaukee on Monday, while he himself would be returning to the re-election campaign trail after pausing his schedule to manage the immediate response to the shooting.
“We can do this,” Mr Biden pleaded, saying the nation was founded on a democracy that gave reason and balance a chance to prevail over brute force.
“American democracy — where arguments are made in good faith. American democracy — where the rule of law is respected. Where decency, dignity, fair play aren’t just quaint notions, they’re living, breathing realities.”
Mr Biden also warned that political tensions were being flamed by a balkanised media environment and exploited by American enemies.
“Here in America we need to get out of our silos, where we only listen to those with whom we agree, where misinformation is rampant, where foreign actors fan the flames of our division to shape the outcomes consistent with their interests, not ours,” Mr Biden said.
Earlier on Sunday he had been briefed in the White House Situation Room and condemned the attempted assassination of his predecessor as “contrary to everything we stand for as a nation”. He said he was ordering an independent security review of how such an attack could have happened.
He called for the country to “unite as one nation”, promised a “thorough and swift” review and asked the public not to “make assumptions” about the gunman’s motives or affiliations.
The president said he has also directed the US Secret Service to review all security measures for the RNC. Hours later, Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the Secret Service’s co-ordinator for the convention, said the weekend attack against Mr Trump did not prompt any changes to the agency’s security plan for the event and officials “are fully prepared”.
In his remarks, Mr Biden called the attack on Mr Trump “not who we are as a nation”.
“It’s not American. And we cannot allow this to happen,” he said. “Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is more important than that right now.”
The president said he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for the family of Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief who was shot and killed during the Trump rally on Saturday night in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“He was protecting his family from the bullets,” Mr Biden said. “God love him.”
The president also said he had had a “short but good conversation” with Mr Trump in the hours after the shootings and said he was “sincerely grateful” that the former president is “doing well and recovering”.
Mr Trump, who has called for national resilience since the shooting, posted on his social media account after Mr Biden’s remarks: “UNITE AMERICA!”
Actually achieving unity will be far more challenging, especially in the midst of a bitter presidential campaign. Mr Biden’s team is grappling with how to calibrate the path forward after the weekend attack on the very person he is trying to defeat in November’s election.
Mr Biden, who has set out to brand Mr Trump as a dire threat to democracy and the nation’s very founding principles, put a temporary pause on such political messaging.
Shortly after Saturday night’s attack, Mr Biden’s re-election campaign froze “all outbound communications” and was working to pull down its television ads.
The president also postponed a planned trip to Texas on Monday, where he was to speak on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B Johnson presidential library.
An NBC News interview between Mr Biden and anchor Lester Holt will now occur at the White House, instead of in Texas, as initially planned.
Mr Biden’s campaign said that, after the NBC interview airs on Monday night, it and the Democratic National Committee “will continue drawing the contrast” with Mr Trump over the course of the Republican convention — even though it remains unclear when ads would resume.
Mr Biden also still plans to make a scheduled trip to Las Vegas, which will include a campaign event on Wednesday. Vice President Kamala Harris postponed her planned campaign trip to Florida on Tuesday, where she had been set to meet with Republican women.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, arrived on Sunday evening in Milwaukee for the Republican convention, where criticism of Mr Biden and the Democrats is sure to be searing.
