WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden sought to cool a divided country Sunday following his foe Donald Trump survived an assassination bid, saying in a rare Oval Office address that it is time to lower the temperature of America’s antagonistic politics.
“It’s time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that,” President Biden said in a televised address after the assault in which Republican Donald Trump was wounded in the ear and a bystander was killed by gunfire.
As the US reeled from pictures of a bloodied Donald Trump waving his fist following the gunman opened fire at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, President Biden said that American politics “must never be a literal battlefield, God forbid a killing field.”
Thomas Matthew Crooks
The 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by Secret Service agents amid scenes of anarchy. The US officials say the attacker motive remains unclear.
The FBI said in a statement that it was probing the attack as a potential action of domestic terrorism and also analyzing Crooks’s phone to reveal any “ideologies” the attacker may have had.
President Biden also mentioned the January 6, 2021, Capitol assault by pro-Trump activists as proof that the situation is getting out of control.
Trump vs Biden
The 81-year-old Democrat President said that they couldn’t allow these acts of violence to be normalized, saying that the November 5 polls would be a “time of testing” for the US.
The short speech went without any major hitches — bar Biden twice denoting to the ballot box as a “battle box”. Democrats are keenly watching Biden after a disastrous debate performance renewed concerns regarding his age and ability to govern.
The attempt on Donlad Trump’s life has opened a dark new chapter in an already polarized polls rematch with Biden, who beat the former President in 2020.
Numerous Republicans have claimed that Democrats have encouraged extreme rhetoric that led to the shooting during the rally.
The US Secret Service has insisted the agency is “fully prepared” to maintain security at for the Republican National Convention, as it comes under severe scrutiny over the attempt to assassinate Donald Trump.
The US Secret Agency faces searching questions regarding how the attacker was able to climb onto a rooftop around 150 meters from where Donald Trump was speaking and fire multiple rounds. The development threatens to further aggravate tensions at an already burning moment in the race for the White House.
