For the second time in less than 24 hours, President Joe Biden has made a statement about the deadly shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania that nearly killed former President Donald Trump.
At around 2 p.m. on Sunday, Biden — flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and HHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — addressed the nation regarding the recent shooting. He insisted that the “assassination attempt” against Trump “is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation — everything.”
Biden insisted that he has continued to authorize ‘every resource capability and protective measure necessary’ to ensure Trump’s safety as part of ‘the heightened level of security’ to which Trump is already entitled as a former president and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
As he did at about 8 p.m. the night before, Biden called for American unity. “Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is [more] important than that right now,” he said.
“We’ll debate; we’ll disagree. It’s not — that’s not going to change,” Biden continued. “But it’s gonna — we’re gonna not lose sight of the fact [of] who we are as Americans.”
As part of his call for unity, Biden claimed he spoke with Trump on Saturday night, just a few hours after the shooting. Biden described their conversation as “short but good.” Biden extended his prayers and well-wishes to Trump, his family, and all the injured, as well as the family of the rally attendee who was killed, later identified as Corey Comperatore.
Biden characterized Comperatore as a devoted family man who died honorably. “He was protecting his family from the bullets [that were] being fired,” Biden said. “He lost his life. God love him.”
In the hours following the shooting, some noted that in recent months, high-ranking congressional Democrats have attempted to strip Trump of his Secret Service protections as part of the larger lawfare campaign against him — a lawfare campaign reportedly initiated in part by AG Garland, who was standing beside Biden during his speech about the attack on Trump’s life.
Perhaps to address these criticisms, Biden insisted that he has continued to authorize “every resource capability and protective measure necessary” to ensure Trump’s safety as part of “the heightened level of security” to which Trump is already entitled as a former president and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
Biden also said he has been kept apprised of the security fortifications already in the works ahead of the Republican National Convention, set to begin on Monday.
Finally, Biden cautioned against making “assumptions” about the dead suspect, later identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks. “I urge everyone, everyone: Please, don’t make assumptions about his motive or affiliations,” Biden said. “Let the FBI do their job and their partner agencies do their job.”
In all, the president spoke for just over three minutes and did not take any questions. He did indicate that he would make further remarks again sometime on Sunday evening, this time from the Oval Office.
The entire speech can be seen in the video below. Biden’s remarks begin around the 4:35 mark.
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