US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the political temperature needed to be lowered as he tried to calm a divided nation after the assassination of his rival Donald Trump.
After attacking Trump, Biden said in a televised address from the Oval Office: 'It's time to cool it (the political temperature). We all have a responsibility to do that.'
Biden added that American politics should "never be a literal battlefield and never a battlefield for God's sake."
Trump was shot at during a rally and the attacker, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot and killed by Secret Service agents during the chaos. Officials say it is still unclear why the attacker did this.
The FBI said it was investigating the attack as a possible act of domestic terrorism and that Crooks' phone was being examined to trace his 'views'.
In his third address from the Oval Office during his presidency, President Biden also referred to the attack on Capitol Hills by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, saying that the situation is getting out of hand.
"We cannot allow violence to become the norm," Biden, 81, said. The November 5 election will be a test time for the United States.
After the attack, the president canceled a visit to Texas on Monday, but he will visit the state of Nevada as usual this week.
'My dear Americans, I want to talk to you tonight about how we need to improve the political climate. It is important to remember that although we have our differences, we are not enemies. We are neighbors, friends, colleagues, citizens and most importantly, we are all Americans. We have to stand together.'
President Biden said in his address that 'We all face a test. So each of us has an additional responsibility to ensure that whatever our views, we should never be subjected to violence.'
"It's more important than ever that we stand united and don't let evil win," Donald Trump said after the attack.
The attacker's father is believed to have bought the semi-automatic weapon used in the attack but it was not clear how the young attacker gained access to it. Investigators also found a 'suspicious device' in the attacker's car.
Crookes' former schoolmates described him as a quiet student who often suffered from loneliness.
"He was a quiet young man but he was bullied and it happened a lot," his schoolmate Jason Koehler told reporters.
Who were the attackers?
The gunman who tried to kill former President Donald J. Trump at a rally in the US state of Pennsylvania on Saturday has been identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. was a resident of Bethel Park.
US officials have not released any additional information about the attacker.
According to the American newspaper New York Times, no criminal history of the attacker was found in the public court records of Pennsylvania, while the authorities also say that they could not even guess the motives of this attack.
Thomas Matthew Crooks is listed as a Republican in voter registration records, according to the New York Times.
According to federal campaign finance records, Thomas Matthew Crooks also donated $15 in January 2021 through the donation platform 'ActBlow'.
According to The Tribune-Review of Western Pennsylvania, Crooks will graduate in 2022 from Bethel Park High School, which has about 1,400 students. He also received the 'Star Award' of $500 from the National Math and Science Initiative.
Thomas Crooks' father, Matthew Crooks, 53, told CNN that he was trying to figure out what happened and that he would contact law enforcement before speaking about his son, according to Reuters. Will wait to talk to the agencies.
Bethel Park South of Greater Pittsburgh is a predominantly white, affluent town, according to American TV NBC.
The area is about an hour north of Butler, Pittsburgh, where Raleigh is located.
Dan Maloney, 30, of the area, told USA Today that 'anyone would do something like that is crazy.'
Reuters could not immediately identify social media accounts or other online posts from Crocs. Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to a query on whether the platforms had removed any accounts related to the accused.