Biden, in Oval Office address, asks Americans to ‘cool it down’ after Trump shooting
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The attack threatened to tear a divided nation further apart in the run-up to the US presidential election.
PHOTOS: AFP, REUTERS
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WASHINGTON - US President Joe Biden used the formal setting of the White House Oval Office on July 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 July 13 “calls on all of us to take a step back”, Mr Biden said. Thankfully, Trump was not seriously injured, he said.
“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,” he added in a speech that was about seven minutes long, and carried live by major news networks and the conservative channel Fox News.
It was Mr 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 Mr Biden’s political future is in doubt.
His 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 81-year-old leader to step aside from seeking re-election
Mr 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
“Violence has never been the answer,” Mr 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 Mr Biden to step aside by prompting Democrats to rally around him.
Mr Biden garbled a few words and phrases in his address, a regular occurrence for the President, but one in the spotlight after his faltering June 27 debate performance
After he finished the address, Fox News Channel and other conservative news outlets highlighted his stumbles.
Mr Biden’s Oval address was a rare one. In 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 Trump to focus instead on the future. Within hours of the July 13 shooting, the Biden campaign was pulling down television ads and suspending other political communications.
“Tonight, I’m asking every American to recommit,” Mr 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.
The attempt on Trump’s life has opened a dark new chapter in an already polarised election rematch with Mr Biden, who beat him in 2020.
Despite their bitter enmity, both Mr Biden and Trump called for calm
Trump said it was “more important than ever that we stand United” and added that Americans should not allow “evil to win” in a post on social media.
Numerous Republicans – who themselves often pose with guns in political ads – have claimed Democrats have promoted extreme rhetoric that led to the shooting.
Just before Mr Biden’s speech, Trump landed in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, during which he will formally be anointed the party’s nominee.
The US Secret Service insisted the agency is “fully prepared” to maintain security at the convention, as it comes under severe scrutiny over the attempt to kill Trump.
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 Federal Bureau of Investigation was “looking at it as a potential domestic terrorism act”, the bureau’s assistant director of counter-terrorism 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.
A 2020 High School yearbook photo of Thomas Matthew Crooks, named by the FBI as the “subject involved” in the attempted assassination of former US president Donald Trump.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The attack threatens to further inflame tensions at an already febrile moment in the race for the White House.
Trump was recently convicted of criminal charges, while Mr Biden’s dismal debate performance sparked Democratic party fears over his age and mental acuity.
The shooting will likely now upend how both leaders campaign.
Trump and his supporters are likely to use it to back their narrative of persecution by Mr Biden.
Mr Biden, who is behind in most polls, will meanwhile have to tone down the full-throated criticisms of Trump that he pivoted to last week to shift attention from his own woes.
Mr Biden called off a trip to Texas on July 15 for a civil rights address, but will go to Las Vegas on July 16 for a speech.
“That’s how democracy should work,” he said in the Oval Office address. “We debate and disagree.” REUTERS, AFP
