Washington (CNN) — 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, Delaware, 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.
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.
Biden and Trump spoke late Saturday night, a White House official 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 was attending mass at St. Edmond’s Catholic Church in Rehoboth Beach when the shooting occurred. The president is due to return to the White House late Saturday night, cutting short his planned weekend in Delaware. He’ll receive an updated briefing from homeland security and law enforcement officials on Sunday, the White House official said.
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 in a familiar role – the nation’s counsellor in chief now tasked with bringing the United States together during a serious crisis.
The shooting at Trump’s rally is a shocking turn in what has been a highly charged political season for both of the major-party candidates. Biden has pitched the race as the decision between the continuation and possible destruction of democracy in the United States. That rhetoric will now be closely examined in the aftermath of the apparent attack, including comments that the president made in a call with donors on July 8, during which he said, “It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye,” according to a summary of the call provided by his campaign.
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.”
Inside Biden campaign’s response
Moments after the incident, Biden campaign officials huddled and decided to pull down all TV ads and limit their public campaign messaging.
Bidens campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez and chair Jen O’Malley Dillon sent a note to campaign staff Saturday evening in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, urging staff to “refrain from issuing any comments on social media or in public.”
“We’re also asking everyone to pause any proactive campaign communication across all platforms and in all circumstances until we know more,” they wrote in a note, which was obtained by CNN.
Chávez Rodríguez and O’Malley Dillon began the note by saying that as more information comes in, they are “grateful to the members of law enforcement who immediately jumped into action and wishing Trump a quick and full recovery.”
Mood inside the White House is ‘shock’
The mood inside the White House is “shock” as officials responded to the shooting, according to a senior administration official, and who added that officials wanted “to be responsive and serious.”
Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, sent a brief note to White House staff Saturday evening, saying that the president was “closely” tracking the situation and would continue to provide updates, according to the note obtained by CNN.
Biden told his staff that he wanted to address the nation as soon as he was briefed, according to a source familiar with the matter.
“It is just really horrible,” the senior administration official said, responding to how the reaction has been within the White House following the incident.
“It should never happen. It’s unconscionable,” a senior White House official told CNN.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Evan Perez and Camila DeChalus contributed to this report.
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