President Joe Biden laid flowers at a memorial for Buffalo’s mass shooting victims ahead of a meeting with families of the primarily Black victims killed by a white gunman.
Biden was joined by Jill and various political leaders from New York as he addressed the United States’ latest burst of race-related violence. He stopped at the memorial set up under a tree to pay his respects to the victims of a mass shooting.
“America, evil will not win, I promise you. Hate will not prevail. And white supremacy will not have the last word,” Biden said in remarks at a community centre in Buffalo.
According to the authorities, Payton Gendron, an 18 years old white boy, carried out an act of “racially motivated violent extremism”. On Saturday, he opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at the Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly African-American neighbourhood of Buffalo.
The newly appointed White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters aboard the Air Force One flight to Buffalo that Biden would meet with law enforcement members and comfort the victims’ families and express gratitude to the responders for their bravery.
“What happened here is simple straightforward terrorism – terrorism, domestic terrorism. Violence inflicted in the service of hate,” Mr Biden said.
He made remarks at a local community centre at 1 p.m.
“The president will call this despicable act for what it is – terrorism motivated by a hateful and perverse ideology that tears at the soul of our nation,” she said.
“He will call on all Americans to give hate no safe harbour and reject the lies of racial animus that radicalize and divide us, which led to the act of racist violence we saw on Saturday that took the lives of 10 Americans,” Jean-Pierre said.
Additionally, she added that Biden would call on Congress to keep “weapons of war off our streets” and guns out of the hands of criminals. In addition, he will “call on Americans to seek a union and embrace the diversity that has made the U.S. the most dynamic nation and the world’s strongest country in the history of mankind,”.
The scene in Buffalo was quite familiar for Biden, considering his past track record. Analysts believe he once again took the role of a consoler-in chief.
Biden told Americans he ran for the presidency to restore the soul of America, following his predecessor Donald Trump’s failure to denounce white supremacists and political division in the country.
He took office weeks after a fatal attack on the U.S. Capitol that included racially motivated riots and violence.
The Buffalo trip is believed to showcase how little Biden has achieved in stamping out the curbing gun violence or the rise in white supremacist groups.
Many Republican lawmakers are blocking efforts to advance gun control measures in the country, leading to a rise in mass shootings in recent months.
Biden has asked Congress to pass in-laws that make new background checks necessary to ban military-style “assault” weapons, gun buyers, and large-capacity ammunition magazines.
However, the Democrats, who largely support gun safety measures, don’t have enough votes to pass these laws.
On Monday, a White House National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson said that the Biden administration was implementing a “government-wide national strategy to counter domestic terrorism, which President Biden directed his national security team to develop on his first full day in office, recognizing that has evolved into the most urgent terrorism threat the United States faces today.”
In November, a top FBI official told Congress that the bureau was conducting around 2,700 investigations related to violent domestic extremism. In addition, the Department of Justice said it created a new unit to counter domestic terrorism in January.
On Sunday, police confirmed that they were investigating Gendron’s online postings, including a 180-page manifesto.
The manifesto is believed to outline the “Great Replacement Theory,” a conspiracy theory citing that white people were being replaced by other racial minorities in the United States and elsewhere.
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