President Joe Biden used the formal setting of the White House Oval Office on Sunday to ask Americans to lower the political temperature and remember they are neighbors after a would-be assassin wounded Republican rival Donald Trump.
Trump’s shooting “calls on all of us to take a step back,” Biden said in remarks of less than seven minutes. Thankfully Trump was not seriously injured, he said.
“We can’t allow this violence to be normalized. The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down," he said. "We all have a responsibility to do this."
It was Biden's third use of the formal setting of the Oval Office to comment on issues of major importance to Americans since he took power in 2021.
Biden's appearance allowed him to demonstrate the power of incumbency, an important symbolic image as he battles some in his own Democratic Party who want the 81-year-old leader to step aside from seeking re-election out of concerns he lacks the mental acuity for another four-year term.
Last October he made a prime-time speech to comment on the Gaza and Ukraine conflicts and in June of 2023 he spoke when a deal was reached with Republicans to avoid a breach of the U.S. debt ceiling.
Gun violence is a fact of life in the United States. However, political violence is far rarer. Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated and several escaped assassination attempts. Multiple presidential candidates have been shot, some fatally.
Biden and his team are trying to chart a course for his campaign in the wake of the shooting of Trump, the former president who Biden considers a threat to American democracy should he be elected on Nov. 5.
The campaign called off verbal attacks on the former president to focus instead on the future. Within hours of Saturday's shooting, Biden's campaign was pulling down television ads and suspending other political communications.
“Tonight I’m asking every American to recommit," Biden said. "Hate must have no safe harbor.”
Earlier Sunday Biden appealed for the country to "unite as one nation" after Saturday's apparent attempted assassination of Trump and said he was ordering an independent security review of the lead-up to the attack.
Biden delivered brief remarks from the White House after receiving a briefing on the investigation in the Situation Room. He said he has directed the probe to be "thorough and swift," and asked the country not to "make assumptions" about the perpetrator's motives or affiliations.
Biden quickly denounced the shooting and talked to Trump in its aftermath. His campaign team, meanwhile, is grappling with how to manage the political implications of an attack on the man Biden hopes to defeat in the November election. He 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 in wake of Trump rally shooting, the White House said.
Biden's remarks come after homeland security and law enforcement officials briefed the president, and as the White House continued to call for national unity and condemn the stunning act of violence.
Vice President Kamala Harris joined Biden for an update from top investigators, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray. Also participating were White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Kim Cheatle, director of the U.S. Secret Service.
Trump himself called for unity and national resilience, and aides said he was in “great spirts and doing well” after being injured during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He is pushing ahead with plans to attend this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where criticism of Biden and the Democrats is sure to be searing.
In the moments after the shooting, Biden's reelection campaign said it was putting a hold on "all outbound communications and working to pull down our television ads as quickly as possible.” It was not clear how long the suspension would last.
An NBC News interview between Biden and anchor Lester Holt on Monday will now occur at the White House, the network said Sunday. Initially, the interview would scheduled to take place in Texas.
Harris also postponed a planned campaign trip to Florida on Tuesday, where she was to meet with Republican women voters in light of Saturday's shooting, according to a campaign official.
Investigators are still in the early stages of determining what occurred and why. But some Biden critics are calling out the president for telling donors on a private call July 8 that "it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye."
A person familiar with those remarks said Sunday that the president was trying to make the point that Trump had gotten away with a light public schedule after last month's debate while the president himself faced intense scrutiny from many even within his own party for his dismal performance in the faceoff.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to more freely discuss private conversations.
In the donor call, Biden said: "I have one job and that’s to beat Donald Trump ... I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that."
He continued: "So, we’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye. He’s gotten away with doing nothing for the last 10 days except ride around in his golf cart, bragging about scores he didn’t score … Anyway I won’t get into his golf game."
In his initial response to the shooting on Saturday night, Biden condemned the attempt on Trump's life. The White House also said then that the two men spoke, but did not release details.
"Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence," Biden said Saturday night, before hustling back to the White House from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he had been spending the weekend. "It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed.
