Joe Biden Condemns ‘Terrorism’ in Buffalo: White Supremacy ‘Allowed to Fester’ in Our Country

President Joe Biden speaks at the Delavan Grider Community Center in Buffalo, N.Y., Tuesda
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

President Joe Biden spoke in Buffalo, New York, after meeting with the families of the victims of the mass shooting in a grocery store Saturday.

“White supremacy is a poison. It’s a poison. It really is. running through our body politic. And it’s been allowed to fester right in front of our eyes,” Biden said. “No more. I mean no more.”

The suspected gunman shot and killed ten people and wounded three others at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday. The Justice Department described the mass shooting as a “racially motivated act of white supremacy and violent extremism.” Eleven of the victims were black and two were white.

The president described the shooting as an act of terrorism, citing the alleged shooter’s written explanation of why he planned the attack.

“What happened here is simple and straightforward. Terrorism. Terrorism. Domestic terrorism,” Biden said.

The president called for all Americans to call out white supremacy in the United States, which he said is only getting worse.

“Silence is complicity. It’s complicity, we cannot remain silent,” he said.

Biden called for the United States to enact an assault weapons ban and do more to stop the spread of evil on the internet.

“We can address the relentless exploitation of the internet to recruit and mobilize terrorism,” he said. “We just need to have the courage to do that. To stand up.”

The president also accused the media and political figures of using white supremacy for profit and to gain political power.

“A hate that through the media and politics the internet has radicalized angry, alienated, lost, and isolated individuals into falsely believing that they will be replaced,” he said.

He compared the mass shooting in Buffalo to the Charlottesville protests, which he recalled was why he ran for president in the first place.

“Honest to God, those who know me … I wasn’t going to run for certain, but I was going to be darned if I was going to let… anyway. I don’t want to get going,” he said, trailing off from his thought.

He also connected the mass shooting to the riots on Capitol Hill on January 6th, suggesting that people overseas would only further question the future of the United States and democracy.

“I call all Americans to reject the lie and I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain, and for profit,” he said.

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