President Biden Condemns Violence, Appeals for Calm

In the aftermath of an assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden is a voice of reason.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are briefed by National Security Advisors and members of law enforcement agencies on the assassination attempt yesterday on former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, Sunday, July 14, 2024, in the White House Situation Room. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

“The Trump Shooting Changed Everything,” James Piereson summed it up perfectly for the Wall Street Journal on July 15, 2024. “The nation narrowly averted tragedy Saturday. Is it enough to ease our political polarization?”

“The shots that grazed Donald Trump and killed a spectator at Saturday’s rally in Western Pennsylvania upended a presidential campaign that has already seen its share of chaos,” wrote Piereson.

“Few anticipated Mr. Trump’s victorious return in this year’s Republican primaries following his defeat in 2020, the riot at the Capitol a few months later, and an unending series of legal cases filed against him by Democratic prosecutors,” he mused. “Nor did they foresee President Biden’s fumbling comments and misstatements during the June 27 debate, which provoked several members of his own party to call for his withdrawal from the race.”

“Nothing quite like this has happened in U.S. political history,” Piereson reminded readers of the WSJ. “There have been four presidential assassinations and at least seven botched attempts, most recently an attack on President Reagan in 1981 and two against President Ford in 1975. The closest parallel might be…