Biden condemns ‘sick’ Trump shooting, campaign suspends ads

By Jarrett Renshaw and Nandita Bose

REHOBOTH BEACH, Delaware (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden called for an end to political violence after Republican challenger Donald Trump was shot in the right ear during a rally on Saturday, and Biden’s campaign suspended all political communication, including ads attacking Trump.

“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick,” Biden said, adding he had been thoroughly briefed on the matter and planned to talk to Trump. “Everybody must condemn it,” Biden said.

The shooter’s name, political leanings and motivation are not known.

The president, 81, was at a church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, when the shooting occurred and later headed to his residence. After releasing a written statement, Biden left the Delaware beach house in his motorcade and headed to a local police department to speak on camera about the issue.

Asked whether he thought the shooting was an assassination attempt, Biden said, “I have an opinion, but I don’t have all the facts.”

Biden later spoke to Trump, 78, by phone the White House said, but it did not elaborate on the call.

A Biden campaign official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the team was “working to pull down our television ads as quickly as possible,” in response to the seriousness of the moment. The official did not offer more details.

Biden’s political future has been in doubt since his shaky June 27 debate against Trump sparked calls by his own party to step aside and let a younger candidate run in November.

In recent weeks, the Biden campaign began its most aggressive effort to brand Trump a felon, with the introduction of a new television advertisement that focused on Trump’s criminal conviction.

The advertisement was part of a $50 million investment in battleground states, and marked a change in strategy after an initial reluctance to weigh in on the issue, to avoid engaging with Trump’s legal woes.

Trump was convicted by a New York jury on May 30 of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records related to covering up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.

After the shooting, Senator J.D. Vance, a leading contender to be Trump’s running mate, criticized the Biden campaign for portraying Trump as an authoritarian who “must be stopped at all costs,” suggesting the rhetoric led to the attack.

The Republican former president’s rhetoric on the campaign trail has repeatedly raised concerns he might flout democratic norms by using the power of the state to target perceived enemies if elected.

Political violence is on the rise in the United States, with most of the deadly attacks coming from the right, experts say.

In April, Trump shared a video on social media that included an image of Biden bound and restrained in the back of a pickup truck.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Nandita Bose, Rami Ayyub and Susan Heavey; Editing by Heather Timmons and Jamie Freed)