Biden, in Buffalo, promises that ‘hate will not prevail’
President Joe Biden delivered a defiant and at times emotional speech here on Tuesday, calling white supremacy “a poison” and urging all Americans to reject racist ideologies that some fear are gaining traction in the United States and that apparently prompted Saturday’s massacre in a Black neighborhood.
“In America, evil will not win,” Biden said. “I promise you, hate will not prevail. White supremacy will not have the last word.”
Invoking the racist “great replacement theory” that has been legitimized by some conservative commentators and GOP lawmakers and was allegedly embraced by the Buffalo suspect, Biden said that more leaders need to speak out against it and that tolerating it amounts to complicity. “I call on all Americans to reject the lie,” the president said. “And I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain and for profit.”
For Biden, the speech marked perhaps his most forceful condemnation of white supremacy since taking office, elevating an issue that he has in some ways put at the center of his presidency, even as some activists charge that he has not done enough to advance racial justice.
Biden, in his own telling, decided to launch his presidential campaign after seeing the hate and bile surrounding the Unite the Right rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017. He wrote an essay about it, spoke about it and used it as the north star of his presidential campaign. “This is not who we are,” he said, over and over again.
Now, more than a year into his presidency, a White man is accused of slaughtering 10 people in an openly racist act in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, raising perhaps the biggest hurdle yet to Biden’s assertion that such violence is foreign to the American character. Biden has named a historically diverse administration, starting with Vice President Kamala Harris, but many Black activists want him to do more, from speaking out more often against white supremacy to pushing harder for voting rights.
Biden’s trip on Tuesday to the stricken city in some ways amounted to an opening effort to respond to such exhortations. He met with grieving families, visited a makeshift memorial near the supermarket where the killing occurred, and consoled traumatized police officers.
In his remarks, Biden referred to the shooting an act of “simple and straightforward terrorism – terrorism, domestic terrorism, 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.”
He reiterated his call for Congress to enact guncontrol measures, including an assault weapons ban. “Look, I’m not naive,” Biden said. “I know tragedy will come again. It cannot be forever overcome . . . but there are certain things we can do.”
The president also made an impassioned plea for Americans to reject racism and embrace the country’s diversity.
“The American experiment in democracy is in danger like it hasn’t been in my lifetime,” Biden said. “It’s in danger this hour. Hate and fear are being given too much oxygen by those who pretend to love America but who don’t understand America.”
Biden and his wife, Jill, visited the memorial shortly after arriving in Buffalo. The first lady placed a bouquet of white flowers at the memorial, while Biden crossed himself and both stood silently in front of a tree surrounded by tributes to the victims. They were joined by New York state leaders – including Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who all are Democrats – as well as local officials.
Before Biden’s remarks, he and Jill Biden spent time with the family members, speaking to them individually, asking their names, ages, and relationship to those who were killed. Several said it felt strikingly informal for a meeting with the president.
“His empathy was almost contagious,” said Dee Davis, whose sister-in-law Celestine Chaney was killed during a trip to the store to pick up strawberries for shortcakes. “He talked to everyone, he put his hands on us. He came into us in the crowd to make sure he wanted us to know that he cared. I really felt like he was telling us, in a sense, change is going to come. I really felt that.”
The discussion didn’t delve too deeply into politics, several of the attendees said, though Biden did give the impression that he would push for federal action and that he would need their help.
“He did tell us, ‘We are going to try to do something, but it’s going to take time,’” Davis said. “Nothing happens overnight. But we’re not going to just sit back and do nothing.”
In his remarks, the president paid tribute to each of the 10 victims by name, pausing and becoming emotional as he described one man who had stopped by the supermarket to buy a birthday cake for his 3-year-old son — a son whose father had now disappeared forever.
Residents generally spoke approvingly of Biden’s speech but also said they are looking for substantive action in response to the shooting and remain skeptical Biden’s visit will result in policy changes.