President Joe Biden delivered a gaffe-filled address to the nation from the Oval Office on Sunday evening, telling Americans at one point to settle political differences at the “battle box” when he meant the “ballot box.”
Biden said (emphasis added):
I’ll continue to speak out strongly for our democracy, stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law, to call for action at the ballot box. No violence in our streets. That’s how democracy should work. We debate and disagree, we compare and contrast the character of the candidates, the records, the issues, the agenda, the vision for America. But in America, we resolve our differences at the battle box. Now, that’s how we do it, at the battle box, not with bullets.
The speech yielded no new details about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon. The former president survived despite being grazed by a bullet and wounded lightly in his right ear. One man, former local fire chief Corey Comperatore, was killed; two people were wounded and remain in hospital.
Biden seemed eager to shift the tone of the country’s — and his own — political rhetoric. Even moments before the assassination attempt, the Biden campaign’s social media manager was referring to Trump as a would-be “dictator.” Biden has described Trump as a dangerous threat to democracy, creating what Republicans say is a climate of hatred.
Indeed, on Sunday night, Biden referred to several acts of political violence in recent years, focusing on events such as the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol, and completely ignoring the left-wing Black Lives Matter riots of 2020.
The president cautioned Americans to avoid drawing conclusions about the motives of the shooter, who had been identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks — though law enforcement is treating the attack as a political assassination.
Biden’s Oval Office address was broadcast on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, perhaps suggesting that one purpose of the speech was to seize the limelight from Trump before the opposition received four days of intense media coverage.
Biden may also have wanted to demonstrate to his supporters that he has the ability to perform his duties as president, amid pressure to quit the race after a disastrous debate performance last month.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
