Biden’s response to the Trump assassination attempt rings hollow

The iconic images are already dominating the airwaves. Trump, blood running down his face from a bullet that hit his right ear, urges the Secret Service detail to wait as they try to usher him off the stage at his rally in Pennsylvania. He raises a fist to the crowd and tells them, “Fight. Fight. Fight.” Despite likely being a different head-tilt or a gust of wind away from losing his life, the former president’s instinct was to reassure his supporters that he was OK and that he was going to stay in the fight.

Compare this reaction to the one displayed by our current president, Joe Biden. It took President Biden more than an hour and a half to release a short statement about the incident:

I have been briefed on the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania. 
 
I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well. I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information.
 
Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety. There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it.

It was another twenty minutes — two hours after his political opponent was first shot — before Biden directly addressed the nation. He sleepily told America that he had been briefed on the situation and was trying to get in touch with “Donald.” He did condemn what happened: “It’s sick. It’s sick.  It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.” 

“The idea that there’s political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of.  It was just not appropriate.  And we — everybody — everybody must condemn it. Everybody,” he continued.

He suggested he might address reporters again before the end of the evening, but wasn’t sure. An hour later, we learned Biden is going to return to the White House this evening from his vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

It’s notable that Biden has spent the entirety of his past four years, including in his first campaign speech in 2024, denigrating Trump as a horrible, fascist racist. Biden has suggested beating up the former president, called him a “clown” and reportedly a “sick fuck,” has warned that “ultra MAGA” and “extreme MAGA” is a threat to “the very foundations of our Republic.” 

“They’ve emboldened violence and intimidation of voters and election officials,” Biden said of Trump and his most ardent supporters in 2022.

The Biden administration refused to give Secret Service to Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as an armed man was arrested at one of his events and another man twice trespassed onto his property. Democrats proposed legislation that would have removed Secret Service protection from Trump, the same protection that seemingly saved his life today.

There’s no getting around it. Biden’s words today ring hollow.