President Joe Biden was quick to address the nation after the shooting that injured Donald Trump, killed 2 others and left another in critical condition.
I plan on talking to them shortly, I hope, when I get back to the telephone.
Look, there's no place in America for this kind of violence.
It's sick.
It's sick.
It's one of the reasons why we have to unite this country.
We cannot allow for this to be happening.
We cannot be like this.
We cannot condone this.
And so I want to thank the Secret Service and all the agencies, including the state agencies that have been engaged in making sure that people – and we have more detail to come relative to other injured – other people maybe injured in the audience.
I don't have all that detail.
We'll make that available to you.
I may be able to come back a little later tonight, but we'll put out a statement if we don't – if I'm not able to – if it's not convenient for you all.
The bottom line is that the Trump rally was a rally that should have been able to be conducted peacefully without any problem, but the idea – the idea – that there's political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of.
It's just not appropriate.
I mean, everybody – everybody must condemn it.
Everybody.
I'll keep you informed, and if I'm able to speak to Donald, I'll let you know that as well.
So far, it appears he's doing well, number one.
Number two, that they're thoroughly investigating what happened to anyone else in the audience.
I have – we have some reports, but not final reports.
Every agency in the federal government, I'll be – and I'm going back to my phone to speak with the federal agencies that are being put together again to give me an updated briefing as anything happened, if they learned any more in the last couple hours.
So thank you very much, and I hope I get to speak to them tonight, and I'll get back to you if I do.
Okay?
Mr. President, do you think this was an assassination attempt?
I don't know enough to – I have – I have no – I have no idea.
I have – I have an opinion, but I don't have any facts.
So I want to make sure we have all the facts before I make some – any more comments.
If only Republicans were a bit more circumspect about their comments. Biden is pulling his ads from television for now and trying to calm the situation. Congressional Republicans seem to have a different idea.
I'd just like to point out that Trump has celebrated political violence. He calls the January 6th insurrectionists "patriots." He suggested Hillary Clinton should be assassinated. He pushed lies about Barack Obama that placed him and his family in constant danger. And now his followers in Congress are accusing Biden of putting a hit out on Trump.
None of this is helpful to anyone on any side. And right now, we don't have facts. How about we wait until we have a few to point fingers?
