Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
In Primetime Address, Biden Says Country Must Not Go Down Road of Political Violence
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 9 months ago on
July 14, 2024

President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Sunday, July 14, 2024, about the assassination attempt of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden warned Sunday of the the risks of political violence in the U.S. after Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, saying, “It’s time to cool it down.”

In a prime-time national address from the Oval Office, Biden said political passions can run high but “we must never descend into violence.”

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence — for any violence. Ever. Period. No exception. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized,” Biden said.

Biden spoke for about five minutes from the Oval Office. He noted that the Republican National Convention was opening in Milwaukee on Monday, while he himself would be traveling the country to campaign for reelection.

He said passions would run high on both sides and the stakes of the election were enormous.

“We can do this,” Biden implored, saying the nation was founded on a democracy that gave reason and balance a chance to prevail over brute force. “American democracy — where arguments are made in good faith. American democracy — where the rule of law is respected. Where decency, dignity, fair play aren’t just quaint notions, they’re living, breathing realities.”

AP’s earlier story follows below.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Sunday condemned the attempted assassination of his predecessor, Donald Trump, as “contrary to everything we stand for as a nation” and said he was ordering an independent security review of how such an attack could have happened.

Biden’s First Remarks

Biden delivered short afternoon remarks from the White House after receiving a briefing on the investigation in the Situation Room. He called for the country to “unite as one nation” and a “thorough and swift” review and asked the public not to “make assumptions” about the shooter’s motives or affiliations.

The president said he has also directed the U.S. Secret Service to review all security measures for the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee. Hours later, Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the Secret Service’s coordinator for the convention, said the weekend attack against Trump did not prompt any changes to the agency’s security plan for the event and that officials “are fully prepared.”

In his remarks, Biden called the attack on Trump “not who we are as a nation.”

“It’s not American. And we cannot allow this to happen,” he said. “Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is more important than that right now.”

Biden planned to deliver extended remarks to the nation Sunday evening in an address from the Oval Office. His campaign said the president would touch on “the need for every American to come together to not just condemn, but put to an end to political violence in this country.”

In the meantime, the president said he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for the family of Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief who was shot and killed during the Trump rally Saturday night in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“He was protecting his family from the bullets,” Biden said. “God love him.”

The president also said he’d had a “short but good conversation” with Trump in the hours after the shootings and that he was “sincerely grateful” that the former president is “doing well and recovering.”

Trump: ‘UNITE AMERICA!’

Trump, who has called for national resilience since the shooting, posted on his social media account after Biden’s remarks, “UNITE AMERICA!”

Actually achieving unity will be far more challenging, especially in the midst of a bitter presidential campaign. Biden’s team is grappling with how to calibrate the path forward after the weekend attack on the very person he is trying to defeat in November’s election.

Biden, who has set out to brand Trump as a dire threat to democracy and the nation’s very founding principles, put a temporary pause on such political messaging. Shortly after Saturday night’s attack, Biden’s reelection campaign froze “all outbound communications” and was working to pull down its television ads.

The president also 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. An NBC News interview between Biden and anchor Lester Holt will now occur at the White House, instead of in Texas, as initially planned.

Biden’s campaign said that, after the NBC interview airs on Monday night, it and the Democratic National Committee “will continue drawing the contrast” with Trump over the course of the GOP convention — even though it remains unclear when ads would resume.

Biden Still Plans on Las Vegas Trip

Biden also still plans to make a planned trip to Las Vegas, which will include a campaign event on Wednesday. Vice President Kamala Harris nonetheless postponed her planned campaign trip to Florida on Tuesday, where she had been set to meet with Republican women voters.

Trump, meanwhile, announced that he was moving up plans to go to Milwaukee and the Republican convention, where criticism of Biden and the Democrats is sure to be searing.

The weekend developments were only the latest upheaval in a campaign that has been extraordinarily topsy-turvy in recent weeks.

Biden’s shaky debate performance on June 27 so spooked his own party that some top surrogates and donors turned on him, and nearly 20 Democratic members of Congress called on the president to leave the race outright. Facing mounting questions about whether he was fit for a second term, Biden and his top advisers have been scrambling to salvage his campaign by adding events around the country and more aggressively criticizing Trump.

Saturday’s attack upended — at least for now — that counteroffensive on the cusp of the Republican convention.

Campaign Hopes Oval Office Address Shows Leadership

The campaign also hopes that Sunday’s Oval Office address lets Biden further drive home his point about unity while demonstrating leadership that could assuage nervous critics within his own party.

“We’ll debate and we’ll disagree, that’s not going to change,” Biden said in his afternoon remarks. “But we’ll not lose sight of who we are as Americans.”

Although investigators are still in the early stages of determining what occurred and why, some Biden critics are calling out the president for telling donors in a private call on Monday that “it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.”

A person familiar with those remarks said 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. 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.”

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Newsom Wants to Bypass Trump Tariffs With Direct CA Trade Deals

DON'T MISS

Markets Plunge With S&P 500 Down 6% and Dow Down 2,200 After China Retaliates

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Searching for Missing 12-Year-Old Girl

DON'T MISS

Madera Community College Unveils New Multicultural and Veterans Center

DON'T MISS

Fusion Energy Race Is On. Two Local Lawmakers Want California to Lead the Way

DON'T MISS

Saturday’s Spring Fest to Showcase Free, Low-Cost Activities for Fresno Kids

DON'T MISS

LA County Reaches $4 Billion Agreement to Settle Sexual Abuse Claims at Juvenile Facilities

DON'T MISS

Fresno Man Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Deadly Marijuana DUI Crash

DON'T MISS

Judge Says US Must Return Maryland Man Who Was Mistakenly Deported to El Salvador Prison

DON'T MISS

These Fresno First-Graders Are Topping Their Peers in Reading

UP NEXT

USC’s JuJu Watkins Named AP Player of the Year After Historic Sophomore Season

UP NEXT

Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman Lands on Injured List Following Fall in His Shower at Home

UP NEXT

How Trump’s Latest Tariffs Could Affect Your Wallet

UP NEXT

Curry Scores 37 Points and Warriors Beat Lakers in a Potential First-Round Playoff Preview

UP NEXT

Measles Spreads to Central Texas; 5 States Have Active Outbreaks

UP NEXT

Startup Offers Controversial Microplastic Blood Cleansing Treatment

UP NEXT

Pence Will Receive the Profile in Courage Award From the JFK Library for His Actions on Jan. 6

UP NEXT

Flores Homers, Matos and Wade Also Go Deep to Help Giants Cap Sweep of Astros

UP NEXT

Trump Proposes Tax Deduction for Auto Loan Interest on US-Made Cars

UP NEXT

Western US Sees Sharp Increase in Extreme Weather Impact

Madera Community College Unveils New Multicultural and Veterans Center

14 hours ago

Fusion Energy Race Is On. Two Local Lawmakers Want California to Lead the Way

14 hours ago

Saturday’s Spring Fest to Showcase Free, Low-Cost Activities for Fresno Kids

14 hours ago

LA County Reaches $4 Billion Agreement to Settle Sexual Abuse Claims at Juvenile Facilities

15 hours ago

Fresno Man Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Deadly Marijuana DUI Crash

15 hours ago

Judge Says US Must Return Maryland Man Who Was Mistakenly Deported to El Salvador Prison

15 hours ago

These Fresno First-Graders Are Topping Their Peers in Reading

16 hours ago

Fresno Burial Ceremony to Honor Five Abandoned Babies Set for Saturday

16 hours ago

Visalia Man Arrested for Soliciting Sex From Minor in Kingsburg

17 hours ago

Camalah Saleh Cruises to Win in Stormy Fresno State Student Elections

18 hours ago

Newsom Wants to Bypass Trump Tariffs With Direct CA Trade Deals

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday asked exporting countries worldwide to spare California their retaliatory tariffs, saying he plans to pursue dir...

13 hours ago

13 hours ago

Newsom Wants to Bypass Trump Tariffs With Direct CA Trade Deals

Specialist Anthony Matesic works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP/Richard Drew)
13 hours ago

Markets Plunge With S&P 500 Down 6% and Dow Down 2,200 After China Retaliates

Fresno police are searching for Unique Hernandez, 12, last seen on Friday, April 4, 2025, near Inyo Street and Maple Avenue, wearing all black clothing and carrying a black backpack. (Fresno PD)
13 hours ago

Fresno Police Searching for Missing 12-Year-Old Girl

14 hours ago

Madera Community College Unveils New Multicultural and Veterans Center

14 hours ago

Fusion Energy Race Is On. Two Local Lawmakers Want California to Lead the Way

14 hours ago

Saturday’s Spring Fest to Showcase Free, Low-Cost Activities for Fresno Kids

15 hours ago

LA County Reaches $4 Billion Agreement to Settle Sexual Abuse Claims at Juvenile Facilities

Antonio de Jesus Orozco Montes Deoca, 30, was sentenced on Friday, March 4, 2025, to 14 years and 8 months in prison for a deadly marijuana DUI crash in 2022 that killed one woman and injured four others. (GV Wire Composite)
15 hours ago

Fresno Man Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Deadly Marijuana DUI Crash

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend