Former President Donald Trump shared a succinct call for unity on his social media platform Sunday, just moments after President Biden addressed the nation about the assassination attempt on his Republican rival.
“UNITE AMERICA!” Trump, 78, wrote on Truth Social.
The presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee’s message echoed Biden’s remarks from the White House urging Americans to “unite as one nation.”
Biden, 81, said he was “grateful” that Trump was doing “well” after he said a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear when a gunman — identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks — opened fire from a rooftop near his Pennsylvania campaign rally Saturday.
“An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation,” Biden told reporters.
“It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not American. And we cannot allow this to happen,” he said. “Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is more important than that right now.”
The president called for a “thorough and swift” independent review of how such an attack could have taken place — and urged the nation not to make assumptions about the gunman’s motives.
He also said he had directed the US Secret Service to provide his predecessor with every “resource,” and to monitor security at the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee and which Trump is set to attend.
Biden said he and Trump had a “short but good conversation” in the aftermath of the afternoon attack at the rally in Butler, Pa.
The president also gave brief remarks in the hours after the shooting, condemning it as “sick.”
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Biden was set to deliver a primetime formal address to the nation from the Oval Office at 8 p.m. Sunday.
“I’ll be speaking more about this more tonight at greater length from the Oval Office,” Biden said. “We must unite as one nation, we must unite as one nation to demonstrate who we are.”
Secret Service shot Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pa. A rallygoer, former fire chief Corey Comperatore, was killed, and two other men were critically injured.
With Post wires
