- author, Matt Murphy
- role, BBC News
In a primetime address from the White House, US President Joe Biden condemned the assassination attempt on his predecessor, Donald Trump, and urged the nation that American politics must never become a “killing ground”.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was wounded in the ear when a gunman opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the attack that left one person dead and two seriously injured.
In just his third Oval Office address since taking office, President Biden urged Americans to “step back” and warned that “the political discourse in this country has become very heated.”
“No matter how strong your beliefs are, we must never succumb to violence,” Biden said in his roughly seven-minute speech.
His short but powerful speech went largely unhindered, despite facing intense scrutiny following a number of high-profile gaffes.
In a prime-time address, the president called for American unity and warned that growing political polarization means the November election will be a “test moment.”
Pre-election polls show Biden and Trump in a close race.
Speaking from behind the Resolute Desk, Biden listed examples of violent political acts that have been on the rise in recent years.
“We cannot and must not go down this path again. We have been down this path before in history,” he said, citing the shootings targeting lawmakers of both parties, the assault on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband and the January 6 riot.
“In America, we settle our differences at the ballot box,” he said. “At the ballot box. Not with bullets.”
Saturday’s attack sent shockwaves across the country, as Trump was punched in the ear just after beginning a speech in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Footage broadcast around the world showed the 78-year-old man, blood coming from his ears and running down his face, raising his fist in defiance as Secret Service agents dragged him off the stage and into a waiting car.
The gunman, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by Secret Service agents at the scene. Investigators told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that they found explosives nearby in Crooks’ car and home.
Authorities say they are still investigating the motive for the attack. According to media reports, Crooks is a Republican and donated $15 to a liberal election group in 2021.
Classmates described him as a quiet young man who had been bullied throughout school, and a local gun club near his home in Pennsylvania confirmed he was a member.
Biden said in his speech that he was praying for the family of 50-year-old former firefighter Cory Comperatore, who was shot and killed at the rally, and both men were seriously wounded. Comperatore, a father of two, died as he ran past Trump to try to shield his family from bullets hitting members of the audience.
Biden called Comperatore a “hero” who was killed “simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choice.”
Trump’s supporters were quick to blame Biden and his campaign for the attack, arguing that the top Democrat was trying to stoke fears about his rival’s return to the White House.
“The Biden campaign’s central argument is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Republican Senator J.D. Vance, a potential vice presidential candidate, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
President Biden avoided addressing those criticisms in a speech Sunday night, but his campaign temporarily pulled attack ads against Trump.
The former president himself has sought to maintain a conciliatory tone since the shooting, thanking the Secret Service for their swift action and calling on Americans to “come together” and “show who we really are as Americans.”
He arrives in Milwaukee on Sunday night for the Republican National Convention, where he is expected to accept the party’s presidential nomination.
Trump is also expected to announce his running mate, with US media reporting that only three candidates are still under consideration: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Senator Vance of Ohio.
At a press conference early Sunday, the Secret Service said it had no plans to impose additional security measures around the convention and was satisfied with existing measures.
The station is facing scrutiny over how Crooks was able to get so close to Trump, even though audience members reportedly pointed him out to police.
