This evening, President Biden gave an Oval Office address which lasted just under 10 minutes in which he condemned the assassination attempt against former President Trump last night in Butler, Pennsylvania while mourning the death of Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief who died shielding his family from bullets.
Biden emphasized that we do not know what caused the would-be assassin to act as he did last night and urged Americans to lower the temperature and to not see each other as enemies. The President condemned all political violence which has taken place in recent years be it the attempted assassinations of members of Congress (Democrat Gabby Giffords in 2011 and Republican Steve Scalise in 2017), the kidnapping plot against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th and the attack against Paul Pelosi, husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The question is will anyone listen.
Based on the fact that Republicans are not only not lowering the temperature, but are blaming President Biden for the shooting as they enter the Republican National Convention tomorrow while Democrats are still wavering as to whether they want Biden to seek another term despite these baseless attacks, I'm not sure how effective the speech will be in the long run.
Going forward, the best Biden can do is go out there, tout his achievements and notwithstanding how deplorable the attack against Trump, it does not change the fact that he is a convicted criminal who tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
Of course, this does not guarantee that anyone will listen. But President Biden must try in good faith.
In which case, Biden's best hope is that Trump and Republicans go too far in trying to blame Biden instead of waiting for the facts to come out about the would-be assassin.
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