President Joe Biden makes rare Oval Office address on Donald Trump assassination attempt

Joe Biden’s comments for about six minutes included stumbles and mumbling that might have reminded viewers of the question marks over the 81 year old president’s candidacy.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris being briefed by national security advisors and members of law enforcement agencies after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

US President Joe Biden has sought to calm a deeply divided nation in a rare Oval Office address after the failed attempt on Donald Trump’s life, but the embattled Democrat has signalled he will push ahead with his virulent criticisms of his bitter Republican rival.

Speaking from the White House just over a day since a lone 20-year-old gunman shocked the world by trying to kill Mr Trump at one of his campaign rallies in Pennsylvania, Mr Biden said political violence had no place in America.

“We can’t allow this violence to be normalised; the political rhetoric has gotten very heated and it’s time to cool it down,” he said, speaking just after 8pm local time.

“I know that millions of my fellow Americans have different views on the direction our country should take, it’s part of human nat­ure, but politics must never be a killing field – it ought to be a peaceful debate.”

Mr Biden’s comments for about six minutes included stumbles and mumbling that might have reminded viewers of the question marks over the 81-year-old President’s candidacy, which had dominated the American media until the attempted assassination.

“We debate and disagree, compare and contrast, the character of the candidates, we resolve our differences at the ballot box not with bullets … We must not go down this road in America,” Mr Biden said.

The first attempted assassination of a president or former president since Ronald Reagan in 1981 has upended US politics, presenting grave challenges to the Democrat leader’s re-election campaign, prompting widespread criticism of extreme rhetoric that had demonised Mr Trump as an existential threat.

The President sought to broaden the discussion to include previous episodes of anti-Democratic violence, including the January 6 riots, the attack on Nancy Pel­osi’s husband in 2022 and the allegations of a plot to kidnap Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.

“I’ll continue to speak out strongly for our democracy, stand up for rule of law and action at the ballot box … Here in America everyone must be treated with dignity and respect; hate must have no safe harbour,” he said. “The stakes in this election are high, the choice … will shape the US and world for decades to come.”

In remarks earlier after he was briefed by his top law enforcement officials, the President ordered a “through and swift” investigation of the assassination attempt on Mr Trump as he condemned political violence and promised to toughen security at the Republican National Convention.

Speaking from the White House a day after the lone gunman tried to assassinate former president Trump, Mr Biden urged everyone not “to make assumptions about the motives and affiliations” of the shooter, who was shot by Secret Service agents.

“An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation, it’s not who we are as a nation, and we cannot allow this to happen,” Mr Biden said, after meeting the heads of the FBI, Secret Service, Homeland Security and various other top law enforcement agencies.

Republicans have attacked Democrats, including the President, blaming extreme campaign rhetoric that often cast Mr Trump as an existential threat to the US.

The former president, who was recuperating at his Bedminster, New Jersey, home, released his own statement on social media a few hours earlier, thanking “God alone” for preventing “the unthinkable from happening”, urging Americans to “remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness … We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.”

“It is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win,” he added.

Mr Trump arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday for a week-long convention where he will be formally granted the Republican nomination for president.