Biden asks Americans to 'cool it down' after Trump shooting
Politics must never be a killing field, said the US president.
US President Joe Biden delivers an address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Jul 14, 2024. (Photo: Pool via REUTERS/Erin Schaff)
WASHINGTON: United States President Joe Biden used the formal setting of the White House Oval Office on Sunday (Jul 14) to ask Americans to lower the political temperature and remember they are neighbours after a would-be assassin wounded Republican rival Donald Trump.
Trump’s shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday “calls on all of us to take a step back”, Biden said, adding that thankfully Trump was not seriously injured.
“We can’t allow this violence to be normalised. 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."
“In America we resolve our differences at the ballot box. Now that’s how we do it. At the ballot box. Not with bullets," Biden said in a speech that was about seven minutes long, and carried live by major news networks and the conservative channel Fox News.
He stressed that US politics "must never be a literal battlefield, or, God forbid, a killing field".
The 81-year-old Democrat said that both sides had a responsibility to ease the situation ahead of a deeply polarised election that would now be a "time of testing" for the country.
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. This time, it is less than four months to go before the Nov 5 election, and Biden's political future is in doubt.
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 leader to step aside from seeking re-election out of concerns he lacks the mental acuity for another four-year term.
Biden ran through some of the US' multiple instances of political violence in recent years, including the Jan 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by Trump loyalists and the hammer-beating injury of Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in 2022.
"Violence has never been the answer," Biden said.
Four US presidents have been assassinated and several escaped assassination attempts. Multiple presidential candidates have been shot, some fatally.
White House officials hope the Trump shooting attempt might ease the pressure on Biden to step aside by prompting Democrats to rally around him.
Past assassination attempts against US leaders
Four US presidents were assassinated while in office.
- Abraham Lincoln: Killed in 1865 by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington.
- James Garfield: Shot in 1881 in Washington at a train station and died of his wounds two and a half months later.
- William McKinley: Assassinated in 1901 by an anarchist in Buffalo, New York.
- John F Kennedy: Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy in 1963 in Dallas, Texas as the president rode in a motorcade.
Three presidents were wounded but survived assassination attempts, while in office or afterwards.
- Donald Trump: Trump had just started a campaign speech in Pennsylvania on Jul 13, 2024 when shots rang out. A bullet appeared to have grazed his ear, which was bleeding. He was rushed by security officials to a black SUV.
- Ronald Reagan: He was shot in 1981 outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington but survived the attack. Reagan was wounded when one of the bullets ricocheted off a limousine and struck him under the left armpit.
- President Gerald Ford: Survived two attempts on his life in less than three weeks in 1975 without being hurt.
- Theodore Roosevelt: He was shot in the chest in 1912 while campaigning for elections in Milwaukee and survived.
Biden garbled a few words and phrases in his address, a regular occurrence for the president, but one in the spotlight after his faltering Jun 27 debate performance. He twice referred to the ballot box as a "battle box".
After he finished the address, Fox News Channel and other conservative news outlets highlighted his stumbles.
Biden's Oval address was a rare one. Last October he made a prime-time speech to comment on the Gaza and Ukraine conflicts and in June 2023 he spoke when a deal was reached with Republicans to avoid a breach of the US debt ceiling.
His 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 harbour.”
But he said it is fair to contrast his vision with that of the former president, and that he planned to do so soon.
Steven Okun, founder and CEO of public affairs consultancy APAC Advisors, said it will take more than just one speech from Biden to dial down the rhetoric on either side, and that a concerted effort from both candidates is needed.
”The rhetoric has been so heated on both sides. Trump calls people traitors… and Democrats say democracy is on the ballot,” he told CNA’s Asia First programme.
“The question is – can both parties pull back from it? This will require Joe Biden and Donald Trump to lead on that front.”
Biden called off a trip to Texas on Monday for a civil rights address but will go to Las Vegas on Tuesday for a speech.
SECURITY QUESTIONS
Investigators said that they were still probing the motives of 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was shot dead by snipers at the event in Butler, Pennsylvania after firing multiple shots with a legally-bought semi-automatic rifle.
Former president Trump said on social media Sunday that Americans should not allow "evil to win", adding it was "more important than ever that we stand United".
The 78-year-old Republican later added on social media that it was "God alone" who had saved him. Trump's wife Melania called the shooter a "monster".
Trump was hit in the ear and left with a bloodied face by the attack, which also killed a bystander while two other people were wounded, but he managed to raise a defiant fist to the crowd as Secret Service agents bundled him away.
He landed later Sunday in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, where he will be anointed as the party's presidential nominee, with supporters believing the attack will swing voters behind him in November.
The US Secret Service insisted the agency is "fully prepared" to maintain security at the huge Republican gathering, and that it was not changing its protocols even after the attempt to kill Trump.
But the agency faces searching questions about how the shooter was able to climb onto a rooftop around 150m from where Trump was speaking and fire multiple rounds.
The FBI was "looking at it as a potential domestic terrorism act," the bureau's assistant director of counterterrorism Robert Wells said.
The shooter's father was believed to have bought the semi-automatic weapon used in the attack but it was unclear how the shooter accessed it. Investigators also found a "suspicious device" in the shooter's car.
