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Joe Biden gave an impassioned plea Sunday during a memorial for fallen law enforcement by asking Americans to ‘address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America’ after a racially motivated gunman opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo.
‘A lone gunman, armed with weapons of war and a hate-filled soul shot and killed 10 innocent people in cold blood in a grocery store Saturday afternoon,’ Biden said during the 41st Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service outside the Capitol on Sunday.
The president said that while the Justice Department investigates the crime in Buffalo ‘we must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America.’
The president and first lady Jill Biden attended the event kicking off Police Week Sunday afternoon outside the Capitol honoring the lives of law enforcement who were killed in the line of duty in the last year.
‘Being a cop today is a heck of a lot harder than it’s ever been,’ Biden said during his remarks for the event hosted by the National Fraternal Order of Police.
Biden insisted during his near 18-minute remarks Sunday that his agenda is clearly in favor of funding police, contrary to the far-left calls that began the summer of 2020 for the complete defunding of law enforcement across the country.
President Joe Biden condemned the Buffalo mass shooting as an act by ‘a lone gunman, armed with weapons of war and a hate-filled soul’ during an event honoring law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty in the last year
Biden spoke in front of the Capitol on Sunday at the 41st Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service to kick off Police Week
The president said: ‘Being a cop today is a heck of a lot harder than it’s ever been’. Pictured: Law enforcement salutes the president and first lady Jill Biden as they arrive for the memorial service of fallen officers on Sunday, May 15, 2022
‘We should agree, it’s not to defund the police, it’s to fund the police,’ Biden said to cheers from the audience.
‘Fund them with the resources, the training they need to protect our communities and themselves and restore trust on the police and the people,’ he added.
The White House says that around 20,000 attendees are at the service and 5,000 family members of the fallen. Attorney General Merrick Garland is also in attendance.
Seated next to the President at the dais outside the Capitol were his wife, Senate sergeant at arms Karen Gibson, Senator Patrick Leahy, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta and the architect of the US Capitol Brett Blanton.
The first couple flew to D.C. Sunday morning from their home in Delaware, where they spend most of their weekends away from the nation’s capital.
National Police Week begins Sunday, May 15 and turns through Saturday, May 21.
Biden closed his remarks by saying he is ‘committed to remaining’ a partner for law enforcement and lauding his budget for Fiscal Year 2023, which includes a doubling in funding for community policing.
The president and first lady arrived Sunday back in Washington, D.C. on Air Force One early from a weekend at their home in Wilmington, Delaware to attend the memorial service
The Bidens arrive for the annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 15. Biden said his Fiscal Year 2023 budget proposal includes more money for law enforcement and that his agenda is not for ‘defunding police’
The speech in D.C. came less than 24 hours after Payton Gendron, 18, livestreamed his racially motivated mass shooting on Twitch at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York. Ten people were killed and three others were injured – 11 of whom were black and two who were white.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that he classifies the attack as an act of terrorism.
‘Whether it’s called that legally or not, this was terrorism, this was hate,’ Buttigieg told CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan during an interview Sunday.
He added: ‘This would be a good day for every politician in this country left, right and center, every media figure in this country, left, right and center to come out and unequivocally condemn white nationalism, so-called replacement theory, and any other hateful ideology that could have contributed to something like this before it happens again.’
Payton Gendron, 18, was taken into custody in Buffalo, New York on Saturday after opening fire at a supermarket and killing 10 people
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday ‘enough is enough’ noting that yet ‘another community has been shattered by the horrors of gun violence’, as the latest mass shooting renews calls from the left for action to further restrict Second Amendment gun rights.
‘Moved by the survivors who have turned their anguish into activism, House Democrats have led the charge in the Congress for life-saving gun safety legislation, passing the Bipartisan Background Checks Act and the Enhanced Background Checks Act,’ Pelosi said in a statement on the attack.
‘Additionally, the House will continue to consider additional measures to strengthen efforts to combat domestic terrorism. We must never stop fighting to end the bloodshed — because enough is enough.’
