President Joe Biden condemned the shooting incident at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday and expressed gratitude that Trump survived and was evacuated.

“Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said in a nationally televised statement. “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.”

Biden said he had tried to reach Trump but was not able to talk with him because the former President was with his doctors. He said he would try again later in the evening. “Apparently, he’s doing well,” the President said. “I plan on talking with him shortly, I hope.”

Asked if he would characterise the incident as an assassination attempt, he said he had his own opinion but would wait for more facts to come in first.

“The bottom line is that the Trump rally was a rally that he should have been able to conduct peacefully without any problem,” Biden said. “But the idea, the idea, that there’s political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of, it’s just not appropriate. Everybody, everybody must condemn it, everybody.”

Biden was at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he has a residence, when the shooting occurred. After releasing an initial written statement, he left his residence in his motorcade and headed to a local police department building so he could address the matter on camera.

A White House official told reporters that Biden was briefed on the incident by Kimberly Cheatle, director of the Secret Service; Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary; and Liz Sherwood-Randall, the President’s homeland security adviser.

A Biden campaign official said the campaign was pausing all outbound communications and working to pull down its television advertising as quickly as possible in deference to the seriousness of the moment.

New York Times News Service