On Sunday night, President Joe Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office regarding the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Biden previously made public remarks on the shooting on Sunday afternoon and on Saturday evening.
Following the attack—in which Trump’s ear was reportedly grazed by a bullet, a former fire chief was fatally shot, and two others were critically wounded—Biden returned to the White House for a briefing in the White House Situation Room with his security team.
In his Sunday afternoon address, Biden announced that he had ordered the review of security measures for the Republican National Convention, which starts Monday. He also ordered an “independent review” of the security at Saturday’s rally, the results of which he vowed to share with the public.
Biden also called on Americans to “unite as one nation to demonstrate who we are.”
On Sunday night, Biden began by speaking about “the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies, we’re neighbors. We’re friends. Coworkers. Citizens. And mostly importantly, we are fellow Americans. We must stand together.”
Biden mentioned that he had spoken with Trump and extended his condolences to the family of the victim who was killed.
“A former president was shot, an American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing. We cannot, we must not, go down this road in America,” Biden continued.
“We’ve traveled it before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer. Whether it’s members of Congress in both parties being targeted and shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, or a brutal attack on the spouse of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Or intimidation on election officials. Or the kidnapping plot against a sitting governor. Or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump. “There’s no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence, ever. Period. No exceptions. We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.”
Biden emphasized the stakes in the coming election and acknowledged that Americans do not agree on the direction the country should take.
“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy,” he continued. “It’s part of human nature. But politics must never be a little battlefield or, god forbid, a killing field. I believe politics ought to be an arena for peaceful debate. To pursue justice. To make decisions guided by the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. We stand for an America not of extremism and fury but of decency and grace.”
Biden closed his remarks by calling on Americans to “never lose sight of who we are.”
“There is nothing—nothing, nothing—beyond our capacity,” he said, “when we do it together.”
You can watch Biden’s remarks below.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include quotes from Biden’s remarks.
