President Joe Biden called for a peaceful return to politics in an address to the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday night in the wake of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
“Politics should never be a small battlefield or, God forbid, a field of slaughter,” he said.
He called for unity and reminded Americans to voice their differences at the ballot box.
But he made some glaring mistakes, including calling the ballot box “the battle box” and referring to former President Donald Trump as “ex-Trump.”
However, his overall message was understood.
“The way forward through opposing campaign visions must always be resolved peacefully, not through acts of violence,” he said.
“Tonight, I call on all Americans to recommit,” Biden said. “Hate must have no refuge.”
The president used the Oval Office to lend a sense of weight and formality to his remarks. He spoke from the Resolute Desk, with an American flag and the presidential seal behind him.
President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office
Biden noted that the Republican National Convention begins tomorrow and that he will return to the campaign trail.
“These elections will shape the future of the United States for decades to come. I believe that with all my heart,” he said.
Biden will leave for Las Vegas on Monday. He will speak at the 115th NAACP National Convention on Tuesday and hold a campaign rally on Wednesday.
Trump arrived in Milwaukee on Sunday night for the convention where he will be formally named the Republican presidential nominee.
As the campaign prepares to resume, Biden pointed to the violence seen across the political sphere in recent years, including an assassination attempt on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, a kidnapping plot for Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“We can allow this violence to become normalized,” Biden warned.
“The political rhetoric in this country has become very heated. It’s time to calm it down,” he said. “We all have a responsibility to do that.”
Earlier on Sunday, Biden warned Americans against making assumptions about the motive behind the assassination trip and said he ordered “every resource” available to protect his Republican rival.
“We still don’t have any information on the shooter’s motive,” Biden said Sunday from the White House.
“Don’t make assumptions about his motives,” the president urged. Some Republicans have already begun to blame Biden and his campaign rhetoric for the attempted assassination of his Republican rival.
Biden devoted much of his remarks to defending the Secret Service against criticism and rejecting accusations that not enough had been done to protect the former president.
The Secret Service denied that Trump was not given greater protection despite being the likely Republican presidential nominee.
“Mr. Trump, as a former president and the nominee of the Republican Party, already receives a heightened level of security. And I have followed my instructions in the Secret Service to provide him with all the resources, capabilities and protective measures necessary to ensure his continued safety,” Biden said.
President Joe Biden Addresses Donald Trump’s Assassination From the White House
Biden added that he has ordered an independent review of what happened at Saturday night’s rally.
Biden said he spoke to Trump on Saturday night and was glad the former president was doing well following the assassination attempt.
He also said he was praying for the family of Corey Comperatore, the spectator who died at the Trump rally.
“We also send our deepest condolences to the family of the victim who was killed. He was a father who was protecting his family from the bullets being fired at him and he lost his life. May God bless him,” Biden said.
Questions have been raised about how Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old would-be assassin, was able to get to the roof of a building so close to the site of Trump’s rally.
The robbers grazed Trump’s ear, killed one bystander and injured two more before a counterattacking Secret Service agent killed him.
Biden said the results of the investigation into the security measures at Trump’s rally would be made public and denounced the assassination attempt.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence or any kind of violence,” Biden said. “Attempted murder is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation. It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not American.”
Biden was joined in the Roosevelt Room of the White House by Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The president said he has ordered a review of security measures at the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to begin Monday in Milwaukee.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump gestures as he is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents as he is led off the stage.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the attempted assassination of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Trump announced Sunday that he will travel to Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon.
“Due to the terrible events of yesterday, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin and the Republican National Convention by two days, but I just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter’ or potential assassin to force me to change my schedule or anything else. Therefore, I will be leaving for Milwaukee, as planned, at 3:30 pm TODAY. Thank you!” she wrote on Truth Social.
Trump was taken to his home in Bedminster, New Jersey, after being released from the hospital.
His campaign said the convention will go on as planned.
Meanwhile, the Biden campaign is grappling with how to compete against Trump in the wake of the assassination attempt.
Biden postponed a planned trip to Texas on Monday, where he was to speak at the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library.
And Vice President Kamala Harris postponed a trip to Palm Beach County, home of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, where she was to campaign against Republicans’ record on reproductive rights.
The Biden campaign has pulled all of its television ads and suspended its digital operations. It is unclear how long that pause will last.