US President Joe Biden urged Americans to refrain from violence in an address from the Oval Office on Sunday, speaking 24 hours after his election rival Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt.
The president said Americans need to “get out of silos” where people only hear views which they agree with, stressing that "disagreement is inevitable" in a democratic country, and urging everyone to “lower the temperature in our politics.”
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence. Any violence. Period. No exceptions. We cannot allow this violence to be normalized,” Biden said.
While once again condemning the attempt on Trump’s life at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, he also highlighted several recent incidents, including the 2021 storming of the US Capitol building by Trump supporters, the 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and the 2022 assault on the husband of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Politics must never be a little battlefield and, God forbid, a killing field,” the president said. He added that differences must be resolved peacefully, through debate and elections, “not with bullets.”
“The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin,” he stated.
On Saturday, a gunman later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks fired several shots at Trump when he was giving a speech on an open-air stage in Butler, Pennsylvania. A bullet grazed the former president’s right ear, but he was otherwise unharmed. One spectator was killed, and two more were wounded. Crooks was killed by Secret Service agents.
Although the attack was widely condemned by both Republicans and Democrats, Trump supporters have argued that the Democrats and the media were guilty of inciting hatred against Trump.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson urged the country to “get back to civility.” Speaking on CNN, he said the US needs “a unified message,” given the “heated environment and political division in this country.”