Biden channels Lincoln in address on Trump assassination attempt: 'We are not enemies'

David Badash
15 July 2024

Echoing President Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address, President Joe Biden in a rare primetime Oval Office address Sunday night told Americans "we are not enemies," as he urged the nation to tone down political rhetoric in the wake of the assassination attempt of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump by a 20-year old registered Republican at an outdoor Trump rally in Pennsylvania one day earlier.

It was the third time in 24-hours President Biden spoke to Americans via a televised address about the shooting in which Trump's ear was nicked, some reports say from shards of glass from his teleprompter, while the ex-president claimed it was from a bullet. The eight bullets from the gunman's legally-purchased AR-15 rifle killed a 50-year old former volunteer fire chief who shielded his daughters with his body, and wounded two others.

“While we may disagree, we are not enemies. We’re neighbors, we’re friends, coworkers, citizens. And most importantly, we are fellow Americans. We must stand together,” President Biden reminded the nation, as he announced "the need to lower the temperature in our politics."

Biden said the "shooting calls on all of us to take a step back." Earlier, on Sunday afternoon in his nationally-televised remarks the President said, "We must unite as one nation. We must unite as one nation to demonstrate who we are."

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In denouncing political violence, President Biden cited some of the most critical recent examples in America.

"We can not, we must not, go down this road in America. We've traveled it before throughout our history," the President warned. "Violence has never been the answer, whether it was with members of congress of both parties being targeted and shot, or a violent mob attacking the capitol on January 6th, or the brutal attack on the spouse of the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, or information or intimidation on election officials, or the kidnapping plot against the sitting governor, or the attempted assassination on Donald Trump, there's no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence, ever. Period. No exceptions. We cannot allow this violence to be normalized," Biden said resolutely.

"In America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box, that's how we do it, at the ballot box, not with bullets," the President also declared, as some on the right, including far-right wing websites, quickly mocked and attacked him for his speech impediment, claiming he had said, "battle box."

Pointing to Biden's "desire to protect democracy," NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander Sunday night reminded that the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville was "really the motivating factor" for his decision to run for President in 2020.

Indeed, Biden has a strong record of fighting against political violence and hate. On Sunday he declared that in America, "hate must have no safe harbor," which echoed his 2023 State of the Union Address in which he said: "There's no place for political violence in America," and, "We must give hate and extremism in any form no safe harbor."

"Democracy must not be a partisan issue, it's an American issue. Every generation of Americans has faced a moment where they have been called to protect our democracy Defend it, stand up for it. And this is our moment," Biden had also said.

Former South Carolina Democratic Congressman Bakari Sellers judged Biden's six-minute Sunday evening speech to be "pitch perfect. Great sharp message, tone, and leadership."

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Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin called Biden's remarks "eloquent and sobering."

"Biden speech was eloquent and sobering. It is the time for experienced, reassuring and mature leadership. We need to be called to follow the better angels of our nature not the darkest impulses. There is nothing more important."

"Just watched Joe Biden’s speech. He just won the election," announced SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah.

"President Biden used the pulpit well tonight. He did what a president should do: seek to calm the country, seek to calm each of us," declared award-winning journalist Maria Shriver.

"This is an excellent speech," rhetoric scholar and professor of communications Jennifer Mercieca wrote. "Biden is good at what scholars call the 'priestly role of the president,' which is when the president is called upon to speak to a nation in crisis and remind us of our values and explain why our American values will see us through hard times."

Even Fox News' chief political analyst Brit Hume praised President Biden's speech Sunday night declaring his "message was just right,” as Mediate reported.

Watch clips from the President's remarks and his full address above or at this link.

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