US President Joe Biden called for national unity during a speech in the Oval Office on Sunday, urging Americans to resolve their differences “at the ballot box, not with bullets.”

“In the United States, we settle our differences at the ballot box. That’s how we do it — at the polls, not with bullets,” the president said in a speech that lasted just over six minutes and was broadcast on major television networks.

The president focused his speech on national unity and nonviolence. He gave no new details about the investigation into the attack on former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) in Pennsylvania, but said such an event forces all Americans to “step back, take stock, and look at how to move forward from there.”

Biden said the United States “cannot” and “must not” take the path of political violence, and recalled that the country has been down that path before, citing examples such as the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the attack on the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“There is no place for this kind of violence, any kind of violence, in the United States. Ever. Place. No exceptions. We cannot allow this violence to become normal. The political atmosphere in this country has become very heated. It is time to cool it down. “We all bear responsibility for this,” Biden said.

Despite the “deep and powerful differences” between the two major parties and “much at stake in this election,” Biden insisted on the importance of resolving differences through debate and words, without political violence.

“Disagreements are inevitable. It is part of human nature, but politics should never be a battlefield and, God forbid, a killing field,” he stressed.

“I believe that politics should be a space for peaceful debate, the pursuit of justice, and decision-making guided by the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. Let us defend America not from extremism and rage, but from decency and grace,” he added.

Biden, who spoke briefly with Trump by phone after Saturday’s attack and in front of millions of Americans watching on television at home, said Sunday he was “glad” to know he was OK and assured that both he and his wife, first lady Jill Biden, were “praying” for him.

Trump, who was wounded in the attack, is already in Milwaukee, where he will be formally announced as the Republican nominee for the November election during his party’s convention this week, and is also meeting the vice presidential nominee who will accompany him on the ballot. EFE