President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday evening about the assassination attempt against his GOP rival, former President Donald Trump, over the weekend.
There is a “need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies,” Biden said in his speech.
“We’re neighbors. We’re friends, coworkers, citizens. And, most importantly, we are fellow Americans,” Biden said.
Biden added that the attempted assassination “calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here.” He also extended his “deepest condolences” to the family of the victim who was killed.
Biden then referenced past violence targeting lawmakers from both major political parties, stating:
Violence has never been the answer, whether it’s with members of Congress in both parties being targeted in the shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on January 6th, 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 a sitting governor, or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump.
(Notably, Biden’s claim that “violence is never the answer” comes as he has sent tens of thousands of bombs to Israel to be used in its genocide in Gaza, which has so far killed at least 38,000 Palestinians — but likely far more.)
Biden also stated in his speech that “the political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated,” and that it’s “time to cool it down.”
“Let’s never lose sight of who we are. Let’s remember we are the United States of America. There is nothing, nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together,” Biden concluded.
Even before Biden’s speech, Republicans had begun blaming Democrats (primarily Biden himself) for the attack.
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Georgia), for example, claimed without evidence that Biden had “sent the orders” for the shooting, and said that the president should be prosecuted for “inciting an assassination” based on Biden’s assertion that Trump poses a threat to democracy.
Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance — a top contender for Trump’s vice presidential nominee — claimed that Biden’s statements indicating that Trump is a “fascist who must be stopped at all costs” played a role in the assassination attempt.
But Biden’s statements on Trump’s authoritarianism are not dishonest— Trump has openly stated his desire to be a dictator, at least temporarily, and bragged about how Americans view him as an authoritarian figure.
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