In Buffalo, Joe Biden denounces the “poison” of white supremacism
US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill during their visit to Buffalo on May 17, 2022. AP - Andrew Harnik
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
US President Joe Biden traveled to Buffalo on Tuesday May 17 to pay tribute to the victims and meet the families as well as those who intervened during the terrorist attack in Buffalo which killed 10 people last Saturday.
He gave a speech that was both emotional and firm.
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He may be President of the United States, Joe Biden could not hide his emotion.
Listing the victims of the
Buffalo shooting
, Joe Biden had to stop for a moment when he spoke of this family man who was murdered when he came to the supermarket to buy a birthday cake for his son from three years, reports our correspondent in Washington,
Guillaume Naudin
.
“
Those who claim to love America have given too much fuel to hate and fear
,” the 79-year-old Democrat said again, without mentioning names or party affiliations.
"
This venom, this violence cannot be the history of our time
", he pleaded, while the United States has experienced several killings in recent years targeting African Americans, Jews, people of of Latin American origin.
Support for families of victims
The US President is known for his empathy and he told families that one day the memory of their loved ones would bring smiles to their faces.
Of the author of the massacre, however, Joe Biden did not utter the name, simply speaking of the evil and the hatred which he believes will not win.
► To read also: Headlines: the United States still in shock after the Buffalo shooting
A hatred fueled for months in the head of the 18-year-old killer by white supremacism and the theory of the great replacement which falsely asserts that there is a plan to replace the American population with another.
Theories firmly condemned by Joe Biden who describes them as "
a poison that is spreading in American society
".
Theories that benefit from too much oxygen and that are disseminated widely in the media, social or not, with the aim of obtaining political and financial profit.
Finally, Joe Biden calls on what he calls the "
real America
", a diverse America, to come together to end white supremacy and not let it destroy the soul of the American nation.
Regulation of firearms
Previously, the American president and his wife Jill Biden had stopped at an improvised memorial at the scene of the killing.
Under a dazzling sun, they advanced towards bouquets, words and candles placed at the foot of a tree, in a silence disturbed only by the breath of the wind and the clicking of cameras.
Jill Biden laid an armful of white flowers.
Joe Biden, after removing his sunglasses, signed himself.
The president once again called on Tuesday to regulate firearms: “
I am not naive.
I know the tragedy will happen again
(...)
But there are things we can do.
We can ban assault weapons from our streets
”.
The Democrat has long called on Congress to ban assault weapons — like the one used on Sunday.
This is what New Zealand did after the racist massacre against mosques in Christchurch in 2019, a massacre which was also inspired by
the alleged Buffalo murderer, Payton Gendron
, 18.
But Joe Biden has always stumbled so far on a Republican opposition hostile to any kind of regulation.
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United States
Terrorism
Joe Biden
Racism