Biden says Americans must ‘cool down in politics’
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US President Joe Biden called on Americans to “unite” and cool the political climate in the country after the assassination of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania.
“The political discourse in this country has become very tense,” Biden said in a rare address to the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday night. “It’s time to cool down, and we all have a responsibility to do that.”
“Disagreement is inevitable in American democracy, it is part of human nature. Politics should never be a battlefield, God forbid, a killing field,” he said.
Biden rushed back to Washington from his Delaware beach home on Saturday night after the former US president was shot in the ear. Trump crouched down briefly, then stood defiantly, pumping his fist before being escorted off stage to his motorcade.
One protester was killed in the shooting, along with the gunman, whose motive remains unknown.
After spending the night at his golf club in New Jersey, Trump traveled to Wisconsin on Sunday ahead of the Republican National Convention scheduled for this week to formally nominate him for president.
This is a story of development.