White House says Biden wants to turn down the temperature — if Trump does too

The White House says President Joe Biden wants to lower the temperature in politics if former President Donald Trump will agree to it.

"The president has called on lowering the temperature," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday. "But here's the thing: It takes all of us to lower the temperature. All of us. I hope you can read between the lines of what I mean by all of us."

Biden painted the 2024 campaign in existential terms in a Wednesday night address, saying democracy is at stake and warning voters that "whether we keep our republic is now in your hands." Those remarks came just 10 days after he vowed to lower the temperature in politics following the attempted assassination of Trump, the GOP nominee.

"Is this dangerous rhetoric?", a reporter asked during the afternoon press briefing.

"Look, it is important that we continue to talk about unity, it is," Jean-Pierre said. "Saving democracy, making sure that we're unified as a country. And [Biden] called on the country to come together. That is a theme that he's talked about since 2019. Since 2019. Nothing new here."

Some Republicans have said heated rhetoric contributed to the assassination attempt on Trump.

“I absolutely do [think it contributed],” Rep. Harriett Hageman (R-WY) said at an event outside the Republican National Convention. “We’re in a very strange moment in time in the sense that if you believe in freedom and liberty, they call us fascists. They put President Trump on the cover of a magazine, equating him to Hitler. As I have said over and over again, there is only one Hitler.”

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But Jean-Pierre said it's up to both candidates to keep the rhetoric in check.

"It takes all of us to take that action and to lower the temperature," she said.