'Time to cool it down': Biden calls for calm and unity after Trump rally shooting

Hate must have no safe harbour in America, US President says

US President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. EPA

US President Joe Biden spoke from the White House on Sunday night, urging a lowering of the political temperature following the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

“We may disagree, but we are not enemies – we're neighbours, we're friends, coworkers, citizens and most importantly, we're our fellow Americans,” he said in a prime time address from the Oval Office.

“We must stand together.”

He said that the shooting should make all Americans “take a step back and take stock of where we are and how we go forward from here”.

Shots rang out a few minutes after Trump began speaking at the rally on Saturday. He could be seen slapping a hand to his ear and diving behind the podium before Secret Service agents piled on to him.

Trump, whose ear had been grazed by one of the bullets, was spirited from the stage as he pumped his fist in the air and shouted: “Fight!”

One person was killed and two others critically injured during the shooting.

Mr Biden said he had spoken with Trump and that he was praying for him and his family.

The President also said that although the identity of the gunman – Thomas Mathew Crooks – had been discovered, there was a continuing investigation into his motive.

“We don't know whether he had help or support or if he communicated with anyone else. Law enforcement professionals as I speak are investigating those questions,” Mr Biden said.

“Tonight, I want to speak to what we do know: a former president was shot, an American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choice.

“We can't, we must not go down this road.”

He highlighted other recent incidents of political violence in the US: the husband of Nancy Pelosi, former speak of the House of Representatives, was attacked in their home in 2022 by a man wielding a hammer. The attacker had been motivated by right-wing conspiracy theories.

And Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was the focus of a kidnapping plot involving more than a dozen people angry with her over pandemic-era restrictions.

“We can't allow this violence to be normalised,” Mr Biden said.

“You know, the political record in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that.”

A number of Republican politicians have pointed to Democratic rhetoric that they say led to the shooting.

Senator JD Vance of Ohio, believed to be one of the top picks for Trump's running mate, said the shooting “was not an isolated incident”.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” he wrote in a post on X. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination.”

The political affiliations of Mr Crooks, who was killed at the scene, are unknown. He was a registered Republican but had also made a donation to a Democratic group.

Mr Biden said that while disagreement is inevitable in politics, it must never become a literal battlefield or a killing field.

“We debate and disagree, we compare and contrast the character of the candidates, their records, the issues, their agenda, the vision for America,” he said.

“But in America, we resolve our difference at the ballot box.”

The President has cancelled a planned campaign appearance in Texas. Trump, meanwhile, has said he will attend the Republican National Convention, which begins in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday.