State Dept: World has ‘questions about our democracy’ after Trump shooting, US must ‘respond as a nation’
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday that people around the world have “questions about our democracy” following the attempted assassination of former President Trump over the weekend at a rally in Pennsylvania, and that it is now up to the U.S. to “respond as a nation.”
Miller, speaking to reporters at a briefing, began by saying that “what happens inside the United States is essential to the work that we do outside our borders,” and that “one of our responsibilities as America’s diplomats is to promote our core values around the world.”
“We know today that people around the world, governments around the world, have questions about what happened on Saturday, just as Americans do. And our message to them is simple,” Miller said. “As President Biden has made clear, there is no place for violence in our democracy, period. We condemn this attack and all political violence strongly and unequivocally, just as we condemn political violence in any country.”
Miller continued by saying that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken about the “effect of dehumanization and the cost to society when people lose sight of the core humanity they share with others, even those with whom they strongly disagree.”
Former President Trump is surrounded by Secret Service after gunfire rang out during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
He added: “So at this time, when people around the world have questions about our democracy, a big part of what we must do is show them how we respond as a nation.”
TRUMP BREAKS SILENCE ON ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT: ‘I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken convened a special meeting at the State Department following the attempted assassination of former President Trump on Saturday. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz/Pool/File Photo)
Miller also revealed that Blinken this morning “convened the senior leadership team here at the department to remind them that one of America’s great strengths throughout our history has been our ability to reclaim our humanity, our fundamental decency after acts of tremendous violence and inhumanity.”
President Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House on Sunday, July 14, about the assassination attempt against Trump. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
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“And he asked them to deliver that message around the world, to remind our allies and partners that America has faced trying times before, but that we have emerged from them stronger because of our core values that we share as a nation: a commitment to democracy, a respect for the rule of law and a common aspiration not to let the things that divide us overwhelm those that bind us together,” Miller concluded.
