Biden Asks America to Unite and Vows Swift Inquiry of Attempted Assassination of Trump

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

In brief remarks to the nation from the White House, 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.”

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

“I’m sincerely grateful that he’s doing well and recovering,” 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 Trump was set to attend his party’s nominating convention in Milwaukee. Trump has said the convention will proceed as planned and was scheduled to fly to Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon.

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 Biden is still scheduled to be interviewed by Lester Holt of NBC News on Monday.

The campaign will eventually continue, Biden said, but he urged Americans to seize the opportunity to come together.

“Unity is the most elusive goal of all. Nothing is more important than that right now,” he said. “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 of who we are as Americans.”

The shooting upended what had already been a chaotic presidential contest, with Biden waging a fierce intraparty battle to remain the Democratic nominee because of his poor debate performance last month. For weeks, the president and his campaign had struggled to shift the attention back to the former president.

The assassination attempt did just that, raising disturbing questions about the deep divisions in the country and the willingness by some to resort to violence instead of the ballot box to resolve those differences.

It also raised serious security issues for those responsible for protecting the nation’s political leaders, including how the Secret Service could have allowed the assailant to get close enough to fire off shots that came within inches of killing the former president.

Biden said he had demanded a national security review of what happened at Trump’s rally and promised to share the results with the American people. He also said he had directed the Secret Service to review security arrangements for the Republican convention, and pledged that the Secret Service would give Trump “every resource capability and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety.”

Flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Attorney General Merrick Garland, Biden offered his “deepest condolences” to the family of a man at Trump’s rally who was killed by the shooter, calling him “a father who was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired.” He said he was praying for those injured to make a full recovery.

The president provided few details about the investigation into how the shooter carried out the attack, which, in addition to the dead spectator, also critically injured two others.

“The FBI is leading this investigation, which is still in its early stages,” the president said. “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 FBI do their job.”

In the meantime, White House aides and campaign officials said the president would not move ahead with several planned events in the coming days. A speech planned for Monday at the Lyndon Baines Johnson library in Austin, Texas, was postponed for a week, and a fundraiser in the city will not take place, aides said.

Harris has postponed a campaign stop planned for Tuesday in Palm Beach County, Florida, where she had planned to address abortion, according to two people with knowledge of her plans. Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban, has been a frequent destination for Harris and Biden to talk about reproductive rights.

Biden’s interview with Holt will take place at the White House, rather than in Austin, since the president’s visit to the city has been postponed.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .