President Joe Biden made a stern plea for Americans to tone down political rhetoric and work together as a nation in the wake of Saturday’s shocking assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Biden’s Republican presidential rival in November.
“The political rhetoric has become very heated,” Biden said in a rare Oval Office speech that aired live on multiple networks at 8 p.m. ET. “It’s time to cool it down.”
Biden expressed concern about Trump, who was hit in the ear by a bullet during a rally in Butler, Penn. . The deadly political violence is yet another shocking development in a presidential race between Biden and Trump that has been unprecedented.
“We must stand together,” Biden said during his six-minute speech. The president urged his audience to remember that despite political differences, “we are not enemies, we are neighbors, we are friends, colleagues, citizens, and most importantly, we are fellow Americans. We must be strong together. Yesterday’s shooting calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are and how we move forward from here.”
More to come