(AFP) – Rivals Donald Trump and Joe Biden urged Americans to show unity Sunday after a shocking assassination attempt on the Republican that the FBI said was being investigated as a possible act of domestic terrorism.
The attack threatened to tear a divided nation further apart in the run-up to the US presidential election, with the incident in which Trump was hit in the ear at a campaign rally also being investigated as a massive security failure.
Investigators said that they were still probing the motives of 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was shot dead by snipers at the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, after firing multiple shots with a legally-bought semi-automatic rifle.
Biden was set to address the nation later Sunday from the Oval Office, a step reserved for moments of grave crisis that he has only taken three times during his presidency.
Former president Trump said on social media Sunday that Americans should not allow “evil to win” and added that it was “more important than ever that we stand United”.
The 78-year-old later added on social media that it was “God alone” who had saved him. Trump’s wife Melania called the shooter a “monster.”
Trump was left with a bloodied face by the attack, which also killed a bystander while two other people were wounded, but he managed to raise a defiant fist to the crowd as Secret Service agents bundled him away.
Trump landed later Sunday in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, where he will be anointed as the party’s presidential nominee, with supporters believing the attack will swing voters behind him in November.
– ‘Elusive goal’ –
The US Secret Service insisted Sunday the agency is “fully prepared” to maintain security at the huge Republican gathering, and that it was not changing its protocols even after the attempt to kill Trump.
“We’re fully prepared and have a comprehensive security plan in place, and we’re ready to go,” Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the Secret Service’s RNC Coordinator, told reporters.
But the agency faces searching questions about how the shooter was able to climb onto a rooftop around 150 meters (500 feet) from where Trump was speaking and fire off multiple rounds.
After months of increasingly bitter political rhetoric on both sides boiled over into violence, Biden also called for Americans to come together.
“Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is more important,” Biden said in brief remarks from the White House, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and his homeland security chief.
The 81-year-old Democrat said he had a “short but good conversation” on Saturday with Trump, his political nemesis whom he regularly brands as a threat to democracy.
Investigators are now trying to figure out what drove the shooter, with the FBI saying it believed that Crooks acted alone and had no known ideology.
“We are investigating this as an assassination attempt, but also looking at it as a potential domestic terrorism act,” Robert Wells, assistant director of the FBI counterterrorism division, told reporters.
The FBI said the AR-style 556 rifle was believed to have been bought by the shooter’s father, but do not yet know how he accessed the weapon or whether he took it without his father’s knowledge.
Investigators also found a “suspicious device” in the shooter’s car that was inspected by bomb technicians, while they are searching his phone for hints to his motive.
– ‘Bullied’ –
Crooks’ former schoolmates described him as a quiet student who often came across as lonely.
“He was quiet but he was just bullied. He was bullied so much,” Jason Kohler, who said he attended the same high school as Crooks, told reporters.
Biden meanwhile praised the victim, named as firefighter Corey Comperatore, saying he “was protecting his family from the bullets.”
The attempt on Trump’s life sent shock waves around the world, but the effects on a tight US presidential race in a deeply divided country are uncertain.
Trump’s family has already been promoting images of the president raising a defiant fist to the crowd after the shooting.
His narrow escape has sparked conspiracy theories and finger-pointing by Republicans.
US politics have become increasingly hostile, with Trump building his image around inflammatory verbal assaults, and many Democrats expressing fury and disgust at Trump’s rise.
World leaders expressed outrage over the assassination attempt, with UN chief Antonio Guterres saying he condemned it “unequivocally.” burs-dk/st – Gregory Walton with Danny Kemp in Washington.
© 2024 AFP
