2 years ago
President Joe Biden on Tuesday labeled the deadly shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., as “domestic terrorism” and vowed that the white supremacist ideology espoused by the gunman must not be allowed to prevail.
“What happened here is simple and straightforward: terrorism. Terrorism. Domestic terrorism,” Biden said in a speech during a visit to Buffalo. “Violence inflicted in the service of hate and a vicious thirst for power that defines one group of people being inherently inferior to any other group.”
The president’s remarks come after a shooter who had posted a racist manifesto online opened fire at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo on Saturday, leaving 10 people dead. The 18-year-old shooter, a white man, drove 200 miles for the attack, which authorities say was fueled by a racist and anti-immigrant agenda.
Federal authorities are investigating the attack as a hate crime.
Biden on Tuesday called out the media, political figures and the internet for radicalizing “angry, alienated, lost and isolated individuals” into believing so-called replacement theory, a racist concept that casts minorities as an existential threat to white people. Prominent Republican and conservative media figures have promoted the far-right ideology, including popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
“I call on all Americans to reject the lie, and I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain and for profit,” Biden said.
The president also called white supremacy a “poison” that has invoked several other previous attacks, including the deadly rally in Charlottesville, Va., and the mass shootings in Charleston, S.C., El Paso, Texas, and Pittsburgh. He said the ideology “has no place in America.”
“In America evil will not win. I promise you. Hate will not prevail, and white supremacy will not have the last word,” Biden said.
English (US)