Biden orders independent review of security after Trump rally incident

'There is no place in America for this kind of violence or any violence for that matter, an assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for ... as a nation - everything,' Biden said

President Joe Biden condemned the assassination attempt against Republican rival Donald Trump on Sunday and said he was grateful Trump was recovering from his wounds in the incident.
 

In remarks at the White House, Biden said he would address the American people on Sunday night on the need for unity. He said he had ordered a review of what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania.
 

"There is no place in America for this kind of violence or any violence for that matter. An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for ... as a nation - everything," he said.

 

Earlier today, Donald Trump survived a weekend assassination attempt just days before he is due to accept the formal Republican presidential nomination, in an attack that will further inflame the US political divide and has raised questions about the security failures.

The Biden campaign had been seeking to reset its message, depicting Trump as a danger to democracy for his continued false claims about election fraud but said on Saturday it was suspending its political advertising for now.

Authorities identified a rally attendee who was shot and killed as Corey Comperatore, 50, of Sarver, Pennsylvania, who Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told reporters was killed when he dove on top of his family to protect them from the hail of bullets.
 

The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the suspect in what it called an attempted assassination. He was a registered Republican, according to state voter records and had made a $15 donation to a Democratic political action committee at the age of 17.

Law enforcement officials told reporters they had not yet identified a motive for the attack. Both Republicans and Democrats will be looking for evidence of Crooks' political affiliation as they seek to cast the rival party as representing extremism.

The shooting occurred less than four months before the Nov. 5 election, when Trump faces an election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden. Most opinion polls including those by Reuters/Ipsos show the two locked in a close contest.