Politics

Donald Trump’s campaign chiefs designed the convention opening this week to feature a softer and more optimistic message, focusing on themes that would help a divisive leader expand his appeal among moderate voters and people of color.

Then came a shooting that rattled the foundation of American politics.

Suddenly, the Democrats’ turmoil after the debate, the GOP’s potential governing agenda and even Trump’s criminal convictions became secondary to fears about political violence and the country’s stability. The presumptive Republican nominee and his allies will face the nation during their four-day convention in Milwaukee unquestionably united and ready to “fight,” as the bloodied Trump cried out Saturday while Secret Service agents at his Pennsylvania rally rushed him to safety.

Anger and anxiety are coursing through the party, even as many top Republicans call for calm and a lowering of tensions.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, known for his sunny and optimistic vision of Republican politics, suggested online the attempted assassination had been “aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy, fascists, or worse.”

1:57
Trump shooting: World leaders condemn attack on former US president

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, another likely convention speaker, offered a more somber tone during a Sunday appearance on NBC.

“We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country,” Johnson said. “We need leaders of all parties, on both sides, to call that out and make sure that happens so that we can go forward and maintain our free society that we all are blessed to have.”

There are no changes yet to the convention program

In an interview Sunday, Republican Party chairman Michael Whatley said the convention’s programming wouldn’t be changed after the shooting. The agenda, he said, will feature more than 100 speakers overwhelmingly focused on kitchen table issues and Trump’s plans to lift everyday working Americans.

“We have to be able to lay out a vision for where we want to take this country,” he said.

Whatley said the central message would have little to do with President Joe Biden’s political struggles, Trump’s grievances about the 2020 election or the ex-president’s promises to exact retribution against political enemies.

“We are going to have the convention that we have been planning for the last 18 months,” he said. “We are a combination of relieved and grateful that the president is going to be here and is going to accept the nomination.”

2:07
Trump shooting; US Secret Service under scrutiny for security lapses at rally

Beyond voting to formally give Trump the nomination, elected delegates from across the nation will update the GOP’s policy platform for the first time since 2016. The scaled-down platform proposal — just 16 pages with limited specifics on key issues, including abortion — reflects a desire by the Trump campaign to avoid giving Democrats more material on a key campaign issue.

The platform approved by a committee last week doesn’t include an explicit call for a national abortion ban, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended a federally guaranteed right to abortion.

Many anti-abortion advocates strongly opposed the Trump campaign’s rewriting of the platform. But after the shooting, at least one major religious conservative said he wouldn’t press to reverse the committee’s decision.

“More divisiveness would not be healthy,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

Perhaps most importantly, Trump will use the convention to unveil his choice for vice president, which could come as soon as Monday. Some Republicans believe the pick will take on more importance than it would have otherwise given the new threats to Trump’s life.

His top three contenders are North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, all expected to speak this week.

Despite a contentious primary season, any lingering tensions appear to have been set aside.

3:35
Biden orders review of failed Trump assassination attempt

Former rivals Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, are expected to speak at the convention on Trump’s behalf.

Veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz said the shooting ensured the GOP is united and motivated behind Trump, a dynamic he said will be on display all week in Wisconsin.

“Every single Trump supporter will now be a Trump voter,” Luntz said. “The average Trump voter is so angry at what just happened. They were angry before this, and now they’re furious.”

People connected to Jan. 6 will be involved

There will be reminders of Trump’s record in a speaking program that includes a handful of Republicans charged with crimes related to other political violence — the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who’s in jail on contempt of Congress charges, is expected to speak at the convention just hours after his release. He was found guilty in September after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Capitol attack.

Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald, who was indicted of criminal charges related to his involvement in the scheme to present fake electors who would overturn Biden’s victory over Trump, plans to present the former president with the party nomination at the convention. A judge dismissed the case against McDonald last month over a venue dispute.

Trump has repeatedly cast the people involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including his many supporters who stormed the Capitol, as political prisoners.

For now, Democrats have scaled back their plans to offer a competing message during the Republican convention.

The Biden campaign over the weekend pulled down its campaign ads. Vice President Kamala Harris postponed a Tuesday appearance in Florida set to focus on Trump’s opposition to abortion rights. And the pro-Democratic group American Bridge is delaying the scheduled Monday release of faux trading cards designed to highlight controversial policy positions of Trump and other leading Republicans.

Biden’s campaign said that, after an interview he does with NBC airs Monday, it and the Democratic National Committee “will continue drawing the contrast” with Trump over the course of the GOP convention — even though it remains unclear when ads would resume.

Publicly and privately, Democrats feared that they were losing a critical opportunity to undermine Trump’s political ambitions at one of the biggest moments of the 2024 election.

“I’m very concerned that the net effect of the Republican convention will be neutralizing the core democracy critique of Trump — a felon who fomented a violent insurrection, tried to block the peaceful transfer of power, and said the Constitution may need to be terminated,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Sunday. “There is a race to define the democracy critique of Trump as legitimate, and we all need to make clear now that protecting democracy is the exact opposite of political violence.”

1:01
Trump shooting: Americans have “responsibility” to cool political rhetoric, Biden says

There are expected to be protesters in Milwaukee

The convention, coming less than four months before Election Day, will take place in heavily Democratic Milwaukee, the largest city in a pivotal swing state Trump lost by less than 1 percentage point four years ago.

Even before the assassination attempt, major protests were expected, although movement will be severely restricted as part of enhanced security precautions established by the Secret Service.

Still, the risk of violent confrontation exists.

Security officials previously announced that people just outside the Secret Service perimeter would be allowed to carry guns openly or concealed as permitted by state law. Wisconsin statutes outlaw only machine guns, short-barreled shotguns and silencers.

Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

The torrent of online threats against public officials has led some Canadians to believe they can threaten, encourage and cheer on political violence with impunity, newly released government documents warn.

Canadian intelligence officials say threatening rhetoric is increasingly seen as a legitimate way to express frustrations, grievances and dissent, fuelling a surge of often violent threats against elected and public officials.

The documents raise yet more questions about how social media companies, police and political parties should respond to online violence, with security officials warning that it can lead to real-world physical harm.

“Vulnerable individuals — notably those experiencing personal or economic stressors — can be heavily influenced by disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories that focus on symbols of authority, including political figures and uniformed personnel,” reads a memo prepared ahead of Canada Day celebrations in 2022.

“These narratives can inspire an act of violence,” the memo says.

Global News obtained dozens of threat assessments prepared between May 2022 and June 2023 by the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC), a federal body bringing together experts from across Canada’s intelligence and security agencies.

Several of the assessments prepared in December 2022 highlight the sense of impunity apparently felt by those who post threats and other violent content online.

“The sustained high volume of violent anti-authority online rhetoric against public officials has fostered a culture in which individuals feel that they can threaten, incite and celebrate political violence online without consequence,” ITAC concluded.

Global News has previously reported that the threats facing Canada’s public officials have ebbed after surging during the COVID-19 pandemic, with attacks now considered “unlikely” according to more recent government documents.

Still, governments and law enforcement agencies are grappling with social media platforms and the false, divisive or hateful content they often amplify, including the ridicule of political opponents, vicious character attacks and threats to personal safety.

As threats to elected officials multiply, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme has encouraged the federal government to consider drafting new legislation to make it easier for police to press charges.

Uttering threats and harassment are already criminal offences, but Duheme said the behaviour reported to police often doesn’t meet the Criminal Code threshold to lay a charge.

That assessment rings true to former Conservative senator Vern White, who served as an assistant commissioner in the RCMP and as Ottawa’s police chief before his stint as a parliamentarian.

“There is an expected level that you have to put up with before the Crown and maybe even the police would say, ‘Well, you know what? That’s crossed the criminal threshold,’” White said of threats levelled at elected officials.

“If that were a business or if that were an individual or a doctor or a lawyer’s office, you probably would act more quickly and try to do something.”

White says there’s no question that elected officials are facing more threats today than a decade ago, recalling the invective he saw hurled at his fellow parliamentarians.

“People would yell and scream things in their face on the streets post-COVID that I never witnessed in my first six or seven years in the Senate. Never came up,” he said.

“Growing out of COVID, I think we saw an acceptance level — from the general public even — that you could harass or harangue anybody you wanted to,” White said.

Several Liberal, Conservative and NDP MPs have said that they — and their staff — often have to deal with a firehose of hateful messages, including death threats.

Liberal MP Pam Damoff announced earlier this year that she won’t seek re-election because of the “threats and misogyny” she has experienced, describing politics as increasingly “hyper-partisan.”

Global News has reviewed more than two dozen profanity-laden messages Damoff’s office said were left for her, either by email or by phone.

“I’m coming after you guys,” threatened one caller in a voicemail, saying he was upset that Damoff’s “rude b-tch” assistant had hung up on him.

“What you just did to me right now, that was it. You’re done,” the caller said.

Damoff said she reported “a couple” of incidents to local police, but was told that they did not “cross the line” — an experience she says is shared by some of her colleagues in the House.

“The messages they get is that we’re going to rape your wife,” Damoff said. “I’m sorry — that’s just not OK, and the police should be able to act on that.”

Justice Minister Arif Virani has pushed back against the RCMP commissioner’s suggestion that new legislation is needed to better respond to threats against politicians.

“I believe that there are strong tools that are in place, for example, in the Criminal Code,” Virani said last month, adding the federal government already provides police with resources to do their jobs.

But Damoff says there appears to be “some kind of disconnect” preventing a more muscular response to the threats and intimidation that she and others have faced.

“If the minister of justice thinks that there are adequate laws in place, I think (there should be) some kind of training with police services across the country and working with the RCMP to make sure that they understand what’s going on,” she said.

In June, Quebec adopted a law that allows fines up to $1,500 for anyone who intimidates or harasses a municipal or provincial politician, despite concerns the legislation could threaten free speech.

White sees Quebec’s new law as “a step in the right direction” and said that parliamentarians in Ottawa should consider passing similar legislation.

“It might be a bit of a damp cloth to politicians about what they’re allowed or permitted to say,” he said, suggesting it might help snuff out the hyper-partisan rhetoric that can lead to calls for violence.

“If it’s not civil at the top, how do you expect everyone else to be civil?”

With the political arena becoming angrier, nastier and increasingly unmoored from past norms of civility, experts say social media companies need to do their part.

“We are dependent on social media self-governance, and they can do — and should do — a lot more to improve the safety for everyone in these spaces,” said Emily Laidlaw, a law professor at the University of Calgary who holds the Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity Law.

Earlier this year, the federal government introduced its Online Harms Act, which would require social media companies to mitigate the risk that users on their platforms could be exposed to harmful content, including incitement to violence.

Laidlaw says that while the proposed legislation will have a “tremendous impact” in improving the online ecosystem for elected officials, the bill could go even further.

“Amendments could be made to strengthen the particular vulnerabilities when it comes to elected officials and other high-profile individuals who are on social media,” she said, suggesting that social media companies could be required to spell out the specific steps they’re taking to mitigate risks against at-risk individuals.

Laidlaw isn’t alone in pointing the finger at social media companies for failing to police the content they host on their platforms.

Speaking to a parliamentary committee in May, the officer in charge of security at the House of Commons said social media companies were ignoring calls by his office flagging malicious or harassing posts targeting MPs.

“The social media platforms are either not taking our call or taking our call and saying they’ll look into it and it ends there,” said Patrick McDonell, sergeant-at-arms and corporate security officer for the House of Commons.

The committee heard that McDonell’s office has been overwhelmed by reports of threats targeting MPs — mostly online — with harassment by members of the public soaring between 700 and 800 per cent in the last five years.

McDonell said his office opened 530 files on threats against MPs in 2023 — up from eight in 2019.

“It’s come to the point where we’re bulk filing reports of harassment of MPs online,” he said.

“There’s just so much of it.”

Meta, TikTok and X did not respond to Global News’ request for comment.

— With files from The Canadian Press

Despite the 90-degree heat, thousands descended on Pennsylvania’s Butler Farm Show, which is a roughly 100 acre fairground used for agricultural exhibitions. Former President Donald Trump had appeared at the site before.

Butler County voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2020, so the crowd was expected to be as friendly as you’d find in the country. 

But things took a sudden, deadly turn, minutes after the former president and presumptive Republican nominee began speaking. 

Here’s a timeline of the attempted assassination of Trump on Saturday, July 13.

6:03 p.m.: Trump takes the stage; gunman spotted by witnesses

Donald Trump took the stage at 6:03 p.m. local time — about the same time that a man was spotted on the roof of a building about 160 yards, or some 400 feet, away. The man was carrying an AR-style semiautomatic rifle. 

Spectators alerted police, and an armed officer attempted to check the roof.

“We noticed a guy crawling, you know, bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away from us,” one witness said. “So we’re standing there, you know, we’re pointing at the guy crawling up the roof.”

“He had a rifle — we could clearly see him with a rifle,” the witness added. 

The sheriff said one officer tried to reach the gunman but had to fall back.

“All I know is the officer had both hands up on the roof to get up onto the roof,” Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told CBS Pittsburgh station KDKA, but the officer never made it “because the shooter had turned towards the officer.”

“And rightfully and smartfully, the officer let go,” Slupe said. After that, the shooter turned his rifle back towards the rally and the crowd and started shooting, Slupe said. 

6:11 p.m.: Three shots are fired, then more shots

As Trump was talking about immigration, the first three shots were fired. They came from Trump’s right. Then three more shots were fired, followed by what sounded like an outgoing shot, as the crowd erupted into screams.

Video recorded by a member of the audience shows Secret Service snipers aiming at something in the direction of the gunman. A final shot is heard 15 seconds later.

Secret Service agents surrounded Trump, who was grazed in the ear, as blood ran down his face. It took a minute and a half to get the former president off the stage. 

As Secret Service agents tried to hustle him into his waiting SUV, Trump defiantly raised his fist several times and seemed to say, “Fight.” 

Some people in the crowd turned their attention to three others who’d been shot. The victims included 50-year-old Corey Comperatore — a firefighter, father and big fan of Donald Trump. He was shot in the head and killed.

“I asked Corey’s wife if it would be OK for me to share that we spoke,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference the next day. “She said yes. She also asked that I share with all of you that Corey died a hero, that Corey dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally. Corey was the very best of us. May his memory be a blessing.”

Two other people — David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74 — were critically wounded. CBS News has learned one of the victims is in a medically-induced coma. 

Trump was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

8:13 p.m.: President Biden speaks out against violence

President Biden made a statement in Delaware, where he had been spending the weekend. 

“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons we have to unite this country. We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”

Afterward, Mr. Biden returned to the White House, where he was briefed on the assassination attempt. 

8:42 p.m.: Trump posts he’s been shot in his ear

Trump wrote on Truth Social: “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place.”

A short time later, he left the hospital, headed to the airport and flew to New Jersey.

1:20 a.m. Sunday: FBI identifies the gunman

Early Sunday morning, the FBI identified the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was 20 years old and lived in Bethel, Pennsylvania, about 50 miles from the rally site. He graduated with an associate’s degree in engineering science from a community college and worked at a nursing and rehabilitation center. 

So far, investigators say his motive is not known. They say he appears to have acted alone, and they have not found any clear indication of his intentions or threats in his social media accounts.

Investigators throughout the night and morning searched the suspect’s home and car. They said they found suspicious devices in his home and vehicle that were rendered safe by bomb technicians.

A former classmate at Bethel Park High School told CBS News that Crooks tried out for the high school’s rifle team but failed to make it. Jameson Myers described him as “a normal boy” and a “nice kid who never talked poorly of anyone,” and added, “I never have thought him capable of anything I’ve seen him do in the last few days.”

7:36 a.m.: Trump thanks people for their prayers 

Sunday morning, Trump posted a message on Truth Social thanking people for their thoughts and prayers, saying “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”

“We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness,” Trump wrote, saying he was praying for the recovery of the people who were killed and wounded in the shooting. 

“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win,” Trump wrote.

10:21 a.m.: Melania Trump calls the shooter “a monster”

Melania Trump also issued a statement on social media. 

“America, the fabric of our gentle nation is tattered, but our courage and common sense must ascend and bring us back together as one,” the former first lady said.

She said that when she watched the “violent bullet” strike her husband, she realized that her life and that of the couple’s son Barron was “on the brink of devastating change.”

“A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion – his laughter, ingenuity, love of music and inspiration,” Melania wrote.

2:09 p.m.: Trump says he’s going to Milwaukee

Trump confirmed on Truth Social that he was flying to Wisconsin as planned to attend the Republican National Convention, which kicks off Monday.

“Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a “shooter,” or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else,” Trump wrote. 

“Therefore, I will be leaving for Milwaukee, as scheduled, at 3:30 P.M. TODAY,” he added.

8 p.m.: Biden delivers Oval Office address

President Biden addressed the nation from the Oval Office Sunday evening.

“We can’t allow this violence to be normalized,” Mr. Biden said. “The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that.” 

He added that “politics must never be a literal battlefield, God forbid, a killing field.” 

The president cited a number of violent political acts in recent years, including the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, a foiled plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the attack on the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the intimidation of election officials. 

“In America, we resolve our differences” at the ballot box, Mr. Biden said, “not with bullets.”

The FBI says it has received more than 2,600 tips so far. Investigators are now working on that timeline in reverse, from the shooting and all the moments leading up to it, as they dissect the would-be assassin’s life in the days and months prior to July 13.

President Joe Biden on Sunday condemned the attempted assassination of his predecessor, Donald Trump, as “contrary to everything we stand for as a nation” and said he was ordering an independent security review of how such an attack could have happened.

Biden delivered short afternoon remarks from the White House after receiving a briefing on the investigation in the Situation Room. He called for the country to “unite as one nation” and a “thorough and swift” review and asked the public not to “make assumptions” about the shooter’s motives or affiliations.

The president said he has also directed the U.S. Secret Service to review all security measures for the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee. Hours later, Audrey Gibson-Cicchino, the Secret Service’s coordinator for the convention, said the weekend attack against Trump did not prompt any changes to the agency’s security plan for the event and that officials “are fully prepared.”

In his remarks, Biden called the attack on Trump “not who we are as a nation.”

“It’s not American. And we cannot allow this to happen,” he said. “Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is more important than that right now.”Biden planned to deliver extended remarks to the nation Sunday evening in an address from the Oval Office. His campaign said the president would touch on “the need for every American to come together to not just condemn, but put to an end to political violence in this country.”

3:30
Biden says Trump ‘doing well and recovering’ from attempted assassination, orders security review

In the meantime, the president said he and first lady Jill Biden were praying for the family of Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief who was shot and killed during the Trump rally Saturday night in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“He was protecting his family from the bullets,” Biden said. “God love him.”

The president also said he’d had a “short but good conversation” with Trump in the hours after the shootings and that he was “sincerely grateful” that the former president is “doing well and recovering.”

Trump, who has called for national resilience since the shooting, posted on his social media account after Biden’s remarks, “UNITE AMERICA!”

Actually achieving unity will be far more challenging, especially in the midst of a bitter presidential campaign. Biden’s team is grappling with how to calibrate the path forward after the weekend attack on the very person he is trying to defeat in November’s election.

Biden, who has set out to brand Trump as a dire threat to democracy and the nation’s very founding principles, put a temporary pause on such political messaging. Shortly after Saturday night’s attack, Biden’s reelection campaign froze “all outbound communications” and was working to pull down its television ads.

The president also postponed a planned trip to Texas on Monday, where he was to speak on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library. An NBC News interview between Biden and anchor Lester Holt will now occur at the White House, instead of in Texas, as initially planned.

2:18
Biden reacts to shooting at Trump rally: “It’s sick”

Biden’s campaign said that, after the NBC interview airs on Monday night, it and the Democratic National Committee “will continue drawing the contrast” with Trump over the course of the GOP convention — even though it remains unclear when ads would resume.

Biden also still plans to make a planned trip to Las Vegas, which will include a campaign event on Wednesday. Vice President Kamala Harris nonetheless postponed her planned campaign trip to Florida on Tuesday, where she had been set to meet with Republican women voters.

Trump, meanwhile, announced that he was moving up plans to go to Milwaukee and the Republican convention, where criticism of Biden and the Democrats is sure to be searing.

The weekend developments were only the latest upheaval in a campaign that has been extraordinarily topsy-turvy in recent weeks.

Biden’s shaky debate performance on June 27 so spooked his own party that some top surrogates and donors turned on him, and nearly 20 Democratic members of Congress called on the president to leave the race outright. Facing mounting questions about whether he was fit for a second term, Biden and his top advisers have been scrambling to salvage his campaign by adding events around the country and more aggressively criticizing Trump.

Saturday’s attack upended — at least for now — that counteroffensive on the cusp of the Republican convention.

10:03
Motive for Trump ‘assassination attempt’ still being investigated, FBI says

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The campaign also hopes that Sunday’s Oval Office address lets Biden further drive home his point about unity while demonstrating leadership that could assuage nervous critics within his own party.

“We’ll debate and we’ll disagree, that’s not going to change,” Biden said in his afternoon remarks. “But we’ll not lose sight of who we are as Americans.”

Although investigators are still in the early stages of determining what occurred and why, some Biden critics are calling out the president for telling donors in a private call on Monday that “it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.”

A person familiar with those remarks said the president was trying to make the point that Trump had gotten away with a light public schedule after last month’s debate while the president himself faced intense scrutiny. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to more freely discuss private conversations.

In the donor call, Biden said: “I have one job and that’s to beat Donald Trump … I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that.”

He continued: “So, we’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye. He’s gotten away with doing nothing for the last 10 days except ride around in his golf cart, bragging about scores he didn’t score … Anyway I won’t get into his golf game.”

&copy 2024 The Canadian Press

Washington — President Biden is addressing the nation Sunday night from the Oval Office to once again condemn political violence in the U.S. after former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt on Saturday. 

The president on Saturday night briefly denounced the shooting that took place at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden again addressed the incident, which left Trump with a bloody ear, on Sunday afternoon. Mr. Biden said he had “a short but good conversation” with his political rival on Saturday night, but he did not elaborate.

“I’m sincerely grateful that he’s doing well and recovering,” Mr. Biden said, adding that he had ordered an independent review of the security and events at the Pennsylvania rally to determine what went wrong. 

A Secret Service sniper killed the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, after he fired a series of shots within minutes of Trump taking the stage. Trump said a bullet pierced part of his right ear. Bullets that missed Trump killed one bystander and critically injured two others. The gunman’s motive has not been determined and investigators are piecing together details about his life. 

“An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation — everything,” Mr. Biden said in his remarks earlier Sunday. “It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not America, and we cannot allow this to happen.” 

The president urged Americans to come together amid deep divisions, saying “unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is [more] important than that right now.” 

FBI officials said Sunday that violent rhetoric online has increased in the aftermath of the shooting. 

On Sunday evening and throughout the week, the president is expected to remind Americans that stopping political violence was one of the reasons he decided to run for president in 2020 and why he’s running again for reelection, even as many in his own party are questioning whether he should remain on the ticket. Since his unsteady debate against Trump last month, a number of House Democrats have been calling for him to give up the Democratic nomination. 

Last week, Mr. Biden said in a news conference that he didn’t feel his job was finished and that he didn’t transition to a new generation of Democrats because “we have never been here before … I have to finish this job because there’s so much at stake.”

How to watch Biden’s remarks on Trump assassination attempt 

• What: President Biden addresses the nation after Trump survived an assassination attempt 
• Date: Sunday, July 14 
• Time: 8 p.m. Eastern 
• Location: The Oval Office 
• Online stream: Live on CBS News in the player above and on your mobile or streaming device.
• Follow: Live updates on CBSNews.com 

Note: Streaming plans are subject to change