WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will once again rely on the message that launched his presidential campaign as he looks to comfort another city torn apart by racial violence Tuesday, with a White House official saying the president will describe Saturday’s deadly mass shooting in Buffalo a test “for the soul of our nation.”
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden paid their respects at a makeshift memorial across the street from the Tops Friendly Markets store, where a white gunman killed 10 people in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
The first lady placed a bouquet of white flowers at the memorial, which was covered with flowers, signs and candles to honor the victims. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., joined Biden and other local officials at the site.
The president is scheduled at 10 a.m. Pacific to deliver remarks at a community center, where he’s expected to condemn the shooting, call on Americans to reject racism and urge Congress to pass stricter gun laws, according to the White House.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One before arriving in New York that the president would decry the shooting as an act of “terrorism motivated by hateful and perverse ideology that tears at the soul of the nation.”
Police have said the shooting was racially motivated. Payton Gendron, 18, who lived 200 miles away in Conklin, N.Y., has been arrested and charged in the massacre.
Biden has repeatedly said that what drove him to run against former President Trump came after a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. He was the first president to directly address white supremacy in his inaugural speech.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said authorities are investigating the shooting “as a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism.”
With the nation’s eyes on the east side of Buffalo, residents said the president once again has an opportunity to help families heal and call out racism, white supremacy and domestic terrorism.
In interviews, community members said they hoped Biden would speak about the level of hatred required to carry out a shooting targeting Black people.
