The White House on Saturday did not initially refer to the shooting at a Trump rally that left the former president bloodied as an assassination attempt, downplaying it as an “incident.”
“The President has received an initial briefing on the incident at Former President Trump’s rally,” the White House said in a statement.
President Biden, who was leaving church in Rehoboth Beach, Del., responded, “No,” when asked by reporters shortly after the Butler, Pa., shooting if he had been briefed.
More than an hour later, the 81-year-old president released a statement on the shooting, and said he was “praying” for Trump and his family.
“I have been briefed on the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania. I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well. I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information,” Biden said.
“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,” he added.
Biden was briefed on the assassination attempt by Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, according to the White House.
A Trump operative told The Post that Biden’s election rhetoric — including tweeting hours before the rally that Trump would be “a dictator” — created a “dangerous” political environment.
“Joe Biden and his Democrat goons need to stop it with the dangerous and false rhetoric that democracy will end if President Trump wins the election. Their lies have consequences,” the operative said.
The Biden campaign said they are “pausing all outbound communications and working to pull down our television ads as quickly as possible.”
A former Trump White House official said they expected Trump’s response to help define the election.
“President Trump met the attack on his life with an iconic act of resolve, uniting all Americans against this unacceptable attack on our nation,” the former official said.
The former president is doing “fine,” according to Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.
The suspected shooter and one rally-goer were reportedly killed in the shooting.