Biden Asks America to ‘Unite as One Nation’ After Trump Shooting

In remarks from the White House on Sunday, President Biden called the attack “contrary to everything we stand for as a nation.’’

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Biden Calls on Americans to Unite After Trump Assassination Attempt

President Biden said that he had a “short but good conversation” with former President Donald J. Trump after the shooting, and that he had demanded a national security review of what happened at Mr. Trump’s rally. Mr. Biden promised to share the results with the American people.

I’m sincerely grateful that he’s doing well and recovering. And we had a short but good conversation. Jill and I are keeping him and his family in our prayers. We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victim who was killed. He was a father. He was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired, and he lost his life. God love him. We’re also planning for the full recovery of those who were injured. As I said last night, there is no place in America for this kind of violence or any violence for that matter. An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation, everything. It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not America. And we cannot allow this to happen. Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is important than that right now. Unity. We’ll debate and we’ll disagree. That’s not going to change. But we’re going to not lose sight of the fact who we are as Americans. We don’t yet have any information about the motive of the shooter. We know who he is. I urge everyone, everyone, please: Don’t make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations. Let the F.B.I. do their job and their partner agencies do their job. I’m instructed that this investigation will be thorough and swift. Mr. Trump is a former president and nominee of the Republican Party, already receives a heightened level of security. And I’ve been consistent in my direction to the Secret Service to provide him with every resource capability and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety. Second, I’ve directed the head of the Secret Service to review all security measures for – all security measures – for the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to start tomorrow. And third, I’ve directed an independent review of the national security at yesterday’s rally to assess exactly what happened. And we’ll share the results of that independent review with the American people as well.

President Biden on Sunday called on Americans to “unite as one nation” following the assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump, and vowed that the federal government would conduct a “thorough and swift” investigation into the gunman’s motives and an independent review of security at the rally.

In brief remarks to the nation from the White House, Mr. Biden called the assassination attempt “contrary to everything we stand for as a nation — everything. It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not American. And we cannot allow this to happen.”

Mr. Biden said that he had a “short but good conversation” with Mr. Trump on Saturday night after the shooting but did not elaborate.

“I’m sincerely grateful that he’s doing well and recovering,” Mr. Biden said. “Jill and I are keeping him and his family in our prayers.”

The president said he would address the nation again from the Oval Office on Sunday night about the assassination attempt on his political rival, which occurred at a political rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night, two days before Mr. Trump was set to attend his party’s nominating convention in Milwaukee. Mr. Trump has said the convention will proceed as planned and was scheduled to fly to Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon.

Mr. Biden’s campaign has pulled down its political ads and canceled political travel by the president and the vice president that had been scheduled for the beginning of the week, although Mr. Biden is still scheduled to be interviewed by Lester Holt of NBC News on Monday.

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