President Joe Biden said he is grateful former President Donald Trump is safe after a shooting at his rally in Pennsylvania.
Speaking from Rehoboth Beach about two hours after the shooting, Biden said, “There’s no place in America for this kind of violence.”
“It’s sick,” the president added. Biden said he hoped to speak with Trump soon.
With the apparent shooting threatening to further inflame political rhetoric in the months ahead of November, Biden took the opportunity to call for the country to unite.
“We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this,” he said.
The shooting – which is being investigated as an attempted assassination, according to law enforcement officials – left Trump bleeding from the ear. A spokesperson said the former president was doing “fine” and being treated at a medical facility. The suspected shooter and at least one rally attendee were killed, Butler County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney Richard Goldinger told CNN.
Biden said in a statement earlier Saturday that he was praying for Trump: “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.”
Biden was attending mass at St. Edmund’s Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, when the shooting occurred. The shooting marks a massive turning point not only for the country, but for Biden’s role as president: He entered the church as a president fighting for his political future and exited as the leader of a nation in political crisis.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
CNN’s Evan Perez contributed to this report.
