“I do know they really feel like there’s a black gap of their chest they’re being sucked into, and issues won’t ever get higher,” he stated. “However our prayers are with you. And I guarantee you, the one you misplaced will at all times be with you, at all times be with you.”
The president’s means to mission empathy towards those that are struggling stands in distinction to Mr. Trump, who struggled to convey a way of somber assist at such moments. (His grinning, thumbs-up {photograph} at a hospital after a mass taking pictures in El Paso generated a backlash of indignant commentary about his go to.) Throughout a marketing campaign performed out towards a backdrop of grief due to the pandemic, Mr. Biden usually accused his opponent of getting no actual empathy for many who had been struggling.
Mr. Biden additionally accused his predecessor of embracing and fomenting the very racial strife that has roiled the nation and impressed acts of violence just like the one which erupted throughout Atlanta on Tuesday. It was Mr. Trump’s response to racist violence in 2017 in Charlottesville, Va. — and particularly his remark about “good individuals” among the many white supremacist rioters — that motivated him to run for president, Mr. Biden has usually stated.
Moments of mourning after mass shootings is usually a particular problem for any president. They require the power to consolation those that are grieving the lack of their family members whereas on the identical time providing optimism and hope to a nation that’s usually badly shaken by the horror of what has simply occurred.
In 2012, after 20 younger kids had been killed by a gunman in Newtown, Conn., President Barack Obama concluded remarks at a memorial service by slowly studying their names, one after the other, whereas some within the viewers wept.
Three years later, after ending his eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was gunned down together with eight others throughout a Bible research in a Charleston, S.C., church, Mr. Obama sang a few of “Wonderful Grace,” bringing the church to its toes and touching the center of the nation.
Very like that second, Mr. Biden now faces not solely a ugly killing spree, however an episode wrapped in racial tensions. And like throughout Mr. Obama’s tenure, the phrases of empathy shall be adopted by robust questions on what the federal authorities can or ought to do to stop the tragic scene from being repeated once more.
Sabrina Tavernise contributed reporting from Atlanta.
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