President Joe Biden likened the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the assault on Nancy Pelosi’s husband in his public address to the nation Sunday night.
“We cannot, we must not, go down this road in America,” Biden said from the Oval Office. He continued:
We’ve traveled before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer. Whether it’s with members of Congress of both parties being targeted in the shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, or a brutal attack on the spouse of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, or information and intimidation on election officials, or the kidnapping plot against the sitting governor, or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump, there is no place in America for this kind of violence—for any violence ever.
America needs to “lower the temperature” in its politics, Biden said.
“The political character of this country has gotten very heated,” he said. “It’s time to cool it down. We all have responsibility to do that.”
While Trump was speaking Saturday evening at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, 33 miles north of Pittsburgh, the would-be assassin fired multiple shots at Trump from a nearby rooftop. One of the bullets struck the upper part of Trump’s right ear.
Biden gave brief remarks in the hours immediately following the shooting Saturday night and again Sunday afternoon, but took more time addressing the serious nature of the incident in his latest speech Sunday night.
“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy,” the president said. “It’s part of human nature. But politics must never be a literal battlefield and, God forbid, a killing field.”
“We stand for an America not of extremism and fury,” he said, “ but of decency and grace.”
In a statement Sunday, Trump said it was “God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
The assassination attempt on Trump took place two days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Trump is expected to be nominated as the Republican Party’s official candidate for president as well as to announce his running mate.
In a post on TruthSocial Sunday, Trump said he had considered delaying his trip to the convention following the shooting, “but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else.”
The convention will run from Monday through Thursday, and according to the City of Milwaukee website, an estimated “50,000 delegates, media, law enforcement, staff, and visitors will attend the convention and related activities in Milwaukee.”
Biden said he expects speakers at the convention will “criticize [his] record and offer their own vision for this country.” He spoke about his own campaign plans to travel this week to defend his “record” and “vision.”
Biden emphasized the “enormously high” stakes of the 2024 presidential election. He said America is in a “time of testing” as the election approaches.
“I said it many times, that the choice we make this election is going to shape the future of America and the world for decades to come,” he said. “I believe that with all my soul.”
“The higher the stakes, the more fervent the passions become,” he added.
The president appeared to almost repeat Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” when he said: “So tonight, I’m asking every American to recommit to make America, to make America what it is.”
He continued:
I think about what’s made America so special. Here in America, everyone must be treated with dignity, respect, and hate must have no safe harbor. 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 fanned the flames of our division, have shaped the outcomes consistent with their interest, not ours.
With his reference to foreign actors, Biden seemingly was referring to the debunked conspiracy theory that Russia wanted Trump to win against Hillary Clinton, so it helped him cheat in the election to win in 2016.
Biden said he was thankful “former [President] Trump is not seriously injured” and is “doing well in July.”
At this time, nothing is more important than “unity,” Biden said.
“Here in America, unity is the most elusive goal right now,” he said. “Nothing is more important for us now.”
Biden concluded with a call to maintain American democracy and a repetition of a favorite theme.
“Look, let’s never lose sight of who we are,” he said. “Let’s remember we are the United States of America. There is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity.”
Virginia Allen contributed to this report.