Biden calls Trump assassination attempt ‘sick’: ‘I have tried to get ahold of Donald’
WASHINGTON — President Biden called the apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump “sick” and said he tried to call his general-election rival at the hospital following the shooting at a Pennsylvania rally.
“I have tried to get ahold of Donald. He’s with his doctors. Apparently he’s doing well. I plan on talking to him shortly, I hope, when I get back to the telephone,” the 81-year-old president said Saturday evening near his Rehoboth Beach, Del., vacation home.
“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.”
Biden said “I want to thank the Secret Service and all the agency, including the state agencies, that have been engaged.”
The commander in chief did not acknowledge reports that one rally attendee had died, in addition to the suspected shooter.
Here’s the latest on the assassination attempt against Donald Trump:
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- Trump defends female Secret Service agent who was criticized after assassination attempt: ‘So brave’
“We have more detail to come relative to other injured — other people may be 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,” Biden said.
“But the bottom line is that the Trump rally was a rally that he 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, is just not appropriate.”
The president said “everybody must condemn it.”
“I’ll keep you informed. And if I am able to speak to Donald, I’ll let you know that as well,” he said. “So far, it appears he’s doing well.”
Biden concluded, “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 more in the last couple hours. So thank you very much, and I hope I get to speak to him tonight, and I’ll get back to you if I do.”
In response to a reporter’s question, the president said “I don’t know enough” to say if it was indeed an assassination attempt.
Some Trump allies pointed to Biden’s frequent remarks slamming Trump as a would-be dictator, saying in the immediate aftermath of the shooting it contributed to a “dangerous” political environment.
Everything we know about the Trump assassination attempt
- 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was identified as the shooter who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
- Crooks was shot dead by Secret Service agents.
- The gunman grazed Trump’s ear, killed a 50-year-old retired fire chief, and injured two other rally-goers.
- Investigators detailed Crooks’ search history to lawmakers, revealing that he looked for the dates of Trump’s appearances and the Democratic National Convention.
- Crooks’ search history also revealed a broad interest in high-profile people and celebrities, regardless of their political affiliation, FBI officials reportedly said.
- Trump exclusively recounted surviving the “surreal” assassination attempt with The Post at the rally, remarking, “I’m supposed to be dead.”
- High-profile politicians, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed the nation about the shooting, calling it “a heinous, horrible and cowardly act.”
A Trump operative told The Post: “Joe Biden and his Democrat goons need to stop it with the dangerous and false rhetoric that democracy will end if President Trump wins the election. Their lies have consequences.”
Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to Trump and a key figure in his campaign, highlighted the fact that Biden told donors on July 8 that “it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.”
“[W]ell of course they tried too keep him off the ballot , they tried to put him in jail and now you see this …” LaCivita wrote on X.
Further stoking outrage from the ex-president’s supporters, both the White House and the office of Vice President Kamala Harris initially referred to the shooting as an “incident.”
