Biden calls for “unity” after Trump assassination attempt and orders security review

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden called on Sunday for the country to “come together as one nation” following Saturday’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump and said he was ordering an independent security review of preparations for the attack.

Biden made brief comments from the White House after receiving briefings on the investigation in the Situation Room. He said he ordered the investigation to be “thorough and swift” and asked the country not to “make assumptions” about the perpetrator’s motives or affiliations. Biden said he also instructed the US Secret Service to review all security measures for the Republican. National Convention starting Monday in Milwaukee.

Biden plans to deliver extensive remarks to the nation Sunday night in a prime-time address from the Oval Office.

Biden said he and Jill Biden were praying for the family of the person killed at the rally. “He was a father,” Biden said. “He was protecting his family from the bullets fired. God love him.

The president said he had a “short but good conversation” with Trump on Saturday night and that he was sincerely grateful that Trump was “doing well and recovering.”

Biden says: “There is no place in America for this kind of violence, or any violence for that matter.”

Biden quickly reported the shooting and spoke to Trump in its consequences. His campaign team, meanwhile, is grappling with how to manage the political implications of an attack on the man Biden hopes to defeat in the November election. He postponed a planned trip to Texas on Monday, where he was to speak on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library, following the shooting at a Trump rally, the White House said.

vice president Kamala Harris joined Biden for updates from top investigators, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Kim Cheatle, director of the US Secret Service, also participated.

Trump himself called for national unity and resilience, and aides said he was “very excited and doing well” after being injured during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He is moving forward with plans to participate in this week’s event Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where criticism of Biden and the Democrats will certainly be scathing.

Moments after the shooting, Biden’s reelection campaign said it was suspending “all outside communications and working to remove our television ads as quickly as possible.” It was unclear how long the suspension would last.

An NBC News interview between Biden and anchor Lester Holt on Monday will now take place at the White House, the network said Sunday. Initially, the interview would be scheduled to take place in Texas.

Harris also postponed a planned campaign trip to Florida on Tuesday where she was to meet Republican women voters due to Saturday’s shooting, according to a campaign official.

Investigators are still in the early stages of determining what occurred and why. But some Biden critics criticize the president for telling donors in a private call on July 8 that “it’s time to put Trump on target.”

A person familiar with those remarks said Sunday that the president was trying to make clear that Trump had gotten away with a light public agenda after last month’s debate, while the president himself faced intense scrutiny from many, even within his own party, for his poor performance in the match.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations more freely.

On the donor call, Biden said: “I have one job and it is to beat Donald Trump… I am absolutely certain that I am the best person to be able to do that.”

He continued: “So we’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump on target. He hasn’t done anything in the last 10 days except ride around in his golf cart, bragging about scores he didn’t score… Anyway, I’m not going to get into his golf game.

In his initial response to the shooting on Saturday night, Biden condemned the attempt on Trump’s life. The White House also said then that the two men spoke, but did not release details.

“Look, there is no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said Saturday night, before rushing back to the White House from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he spent the weekend. “It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons we have to unite this country. We can’t allow this to happen. We can’t be like this. We can’t tolerate this.”