President Biden responded to the racially motivated Jacksonville shooting by denouncing white supremacy in the United States.
President Biden said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:
On Saturday, our nation marked the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington — a seminal moment in our history and in our work towards equal opportunity for all Americans. But this day of remembrance and commemoration ended with yet another American community wounded by an act of gun violence, reportedly fueled by hate-filled animus and carried out with two firearms.
Yesterday in Jacksonville, Florida a white gunman went on a shooting rampage at a store near a Historically Black University and killed three Black individuals. While we still need to learn more about the motivation for Saturday’s shooting, law enforcement has opened a federal civil rights investigation and is treating this incident as a possible hate crime and act of domestic violent extremism.Even as we continue searching for answers, we must say clearly and forcefully that white supremacy has no place in America. We must refuse to live in a country where Black families going to the store or Black students going to school live in fear of being gunned down because of the color of their skin. Hate must have no safe harbor. Silence is complicity and we must not remain silent.
Jill and I are praying for the victims and their families, and we grieve with the people of Jacksonville.
Republicans won’t say what Biden said. Donald Trump’s Republican Party refuses to denounce white supremacy. Trump has said nothing about the Jacksonville shooting where a white man traveled to a Dollar General Store and shot three black people before shooting himself.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was asked about the shooting on CNN’s State Of The Union and he blamed racism on the media:
Vivek Ramaswamy blames the media and universities for racism in response to the racist Jacksonville shooting, “We have a culture in this country largely created by media and an establishment and universities and politicians that throw kerosene on that racism.” pic.twitter.com/JGx7vTZXjz
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 27, 2023
Republicans don’t want to talk about racism. They want to pretend that racism doesn’t exist or that it is created by Democrats, universities, and the media. In their view, racism could never be linked to their party or their party leader’s rhetoric. America can’t solve its problems if Republicans refuse to acknowledge that they exist or talk about them.
The choice isn’t about Democrats versus Republicans, but reality versus fantasy.
President Joe Biden is the reality-based option for the presidency in 2024.
