US President Joe Biden and his Republican opponent Donald Trump have called on Americans to put aside political divisions and come together after Trump narrowly survived assassination attempt.
In a six-and-a-half-minute speech from the Oval Office Sunday night, Biden said political violence cannot be normalized and that all Americans have a responsibility to “calm down” when it comes to heated political rhetoric.
“We cannot, we must not, go down this path in America. We have been down this path throughout our history,” Biden said. “Violence is never the answer.”
Acknowledging the deep differences between Democrats and Republicans, Biden said he would continue to articulate his vision for the country ahead of the November presidential election, but that policy disagreements must always be settled at the ballot box.
“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy. It’s part of human nature. But politics should never be a battleground, or, God forbid, a battleground,” he said.
Biden’s prime-time speech came as the United States was absorbing the ramifications of the first assassination attempt to harm a current or former president since the shooting of Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Trump left with bloodied face after gunman punched him Shots were fired at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday.hitting the former president in the ear.
Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief, was killed and several others were injured in the attack.
Investigators are still trying to determine the motives of the suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who was shot dead by authorities shortly after opening fire on the gathering.
The FBI said it believed Crooks, who was registered as a Republican but had also donated money to a Democratic-aligned political action committee, acted alone and had not yet identified a connection to any particular ideology.
The assassination attempt has reshaped an acrimonious race that has seen each candidate portray the other as an existential threat, significantly distracting from weeks of commentary on Biden’s age and fitness after a disastrous debate performance last month.
Biden, who has portrayed Trump as a grave danger to American democracy, temporarily suspended television ads and political messaging following the attack.
Earlier Sunday, Biden told reporters at the White House that he had a “short but good conversation” with Trump in a phone call after the attack.
“Jill and I are praying for him and his family. We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victim who was killed. He was a father, he protected his family from the bullets that were being fired,” Biden said.
Trump, who has accused Biden of threatening democracy and using the justice system against him, arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Sunday ahead of the opening of the Republican National Convention, where he will be formally nominated as the party’s nominee later this week.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner on Sunday, Trump said he would deliver a “completely different speech” at the convention than the “resounding” one he had originally planned.
“This is an opportunity to bring the whole country together, and even the whole world together. The speech will be very different than it would have been two days ago,” he told the newspaper.
Trump earlier said on his Truth Social platform that Americans should stand together and not let “evil win.” He said he decided to attend the convention as planned because “I can’t allow a ‘shooter,’ or a potential assassin, to force a change in the agenda, or anything else.”
Some Trump allies have gone on the offensive since the assassination attempt, accusing Biden and Democrats of creating the conditions conducive to violence.
JD Vance, an Ohio senator considered a leading contender for Trump’s running mate, accused the Biden campaign of portraying Trump as an “authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.”
“This rhetoric led directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump,” Vance said in a message posted to X on Saturday.
Some political analysts have suggested the attack would boost the likelihood of a Trump victory in November, especially since it took place in Pennsylvania, a key swing state seen as crucial to Biden’s re-election hopes.
Pollster Frank Luntz said he expected Trump’s vote share to increase by one or two percentage points.
“It’s hard to imagine Biden or any of the potential Democratic candidates launching vicious attacks on the former president to please the crowd, thereby taking away most of their ability to play the Trump card by calling him a ‘threat to democracy’ when he just survived a real threat to democracy,” Luntz said in a message posted to X on Sunday.
“The 2024 presidential election is now in Trump’s hands.”
In his speech, Biden, who is trailing Trump in most polls, acknowledged that his record and policies would be criticized at the convention through the normal democratic process.
“We debate and we disagree, we compare and contrast the candidates’ character, their backgrounds, their issues, their agenda, their vision for America. But in America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box,” Biden said, pledging to continue to champion democracy and “action at the ballot box.”
“That’s how we do it, through the ballot box, not the bullet. The power to change America must always be in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin.”
