Buffalo shooting: President Biden urges all Americans to reject the ‘poison’ of white supremacy | US News
Joe Biden has called on all Americans to reject the “poison” of white supremacy following the “racially motivated” mass shooting at a US supermarket.
The US President and first lady paid their respects at a makeshift memorial after the ceremony deadly attack in and around the store in Buffalo.
Mr. Biden and his wife Jill met with the families of 10 all black victims, as well as first responders and local officials.
The couple placed a bouquet at the memorial, filled with flowers, candles and condolences, outside the Tops store in New York state.
Three others were injured in last Saturday’s massacre, which police said was “racially motivated”.
In a speech in Buffalo, Mr. Biden condemned the “poison” of white supremacy, saying: “In America, evil will not prevail, I promise you. Hatred will not be. victory, white supremacy shall have no last word.”
He added: “Now is the time for people of all races, from all backgrounds, to speak out as a majority in America and reject white supremacy.”
The president also mentioned mass shootings in recent years in Charleston in South Carolina, El Paso in Texas, Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, as well as last week in Dallas.
“The actions we have seen in these hate-filled attacks represent the views of a hateful minority. We cannot allow them to distort America, the real America. We cannot. allow them to destroy the soul of the nation.”
Biden visits the scene of a shooting at a Buffalo supermarket. Photo: AP
Read more:
‘Hero’ security guards and shoppers among the 10 named victims
Gunman livestreams ‘racially motivated’ mass shooting
On Saturday, a young man armed with a rifle targeted black people in the deadliest racist attack in the US since Mr. Biden took office in 2021.
The authorities are calling shoot an act of “violent extremism” motivated by racial hatred.
Mr Biden said the gunman was fueled by “the hatred that through the media and politics, the internet has angered alienated, lost and isolated individuals to the point of false trust”. that they will be replaced … by people who are not like them”.
Payton Gendron has pleaded not guilty in the buffalo murder
The substitution theory is a racist ideology that accuses white people of being intentionally “substituted” through immigration.
Payton Gendron, 18, a suspected white supremacist, was arrested at the supermarket and charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
Before the shooting happened, Gendron is said to have posted an online article full of racism and anti-Semitism.
