By Nandita Bose and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden used the formal setting of the White House Oval Office on Sunday to ask Americans to lower the political temperature and remember they are neighbors after a would-be assassin wounded Republican rival Donald Trump.
Trump’s shooting “calls on all of us to take a step back,” Biden said in remarks of less than seven minutes. Thankfully Trump was not seriously injured, he said.
“We can’t allow this violence to be normalized. The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down,” he said. “We all have a responsibility to do this.”
It was Biden’s third use of the formal setting of the Oval Office to comment on issues of major importance to Americans since he took power in 2021.
Biden’s appearance allowed him to demonstrate the power of incumbency, an important symbolic image as he battles some in his own Democratic Party who want the 81-year-old leader to step aside from seeking re-election out of concerns he lacks the mental acuity for another four-year term.
Last October he made a prime-time speech to comment on the Gaza and Ukraine conflicts and in June of 2023 he spoke when a deal was reached with Republicans to avoid a breach of the U.S. debt ceiling.
Gun violence is a fact of life in the United States. However, political violence is far rarer. Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated and several escaped assassination attempts. Multiple presidential candidates have been shot, some fatally.
Biden and his team are trying to chart a course for his campaign in the wake of the shooting of Trump, the former president who Biden considers a threat to American democracy should he be elected on Nov. 5.
The campaign called off verbal attacks on the former president to focus instead on the future. Within hours of Saturday’s shooting, Biden’s campaign was pulling down television ads and suspending other political communications.
“Tonight I’m asking every American to recommit,” Biden said. “Hate must have no safe harbor.”
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Steve Holland; additional reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Heather Timmons and Stephen Coates)
