Trump Shooting - US President Biden uses Oval Office to address Americans: Was it a subtle power flex?

US President Joe Biden on Sunday (Jul14) used the formal setting of the White House Oval Office to ask Americans to cool down after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Biden's use of the Oval Office, for only the third time in his term, holds significance, especially as Republicans openly blame him for the attack on the ex-president.

"We can't allow this violence to be normalised," he said, adding "The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It's time to cool it down."

"We all have a responsibility to do this."

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Hidden messages in Biden's use of the Oval Office

Biden said that the shooting, which his political rival Trump escaped relatively unscathed, "calls on all of us to take a step back".

For his message to Americans, Biden used the Oval Office, a move that has some subtle significance:

The appearance in the daunting Oval Office allowed the embattled 81-year-old President, who has been facing heat for his age and doubts about his capabilities, to flex the power of incumbency. As the President of the US and as the hopeful for the next presidency, this symbolic image may help satiate some fears, both inside the Democratic Party and outside.

Before this, President Joe Biden used the Oval Office twice:once in October 2023, to seek additional funding for war-torn Ukraine and a second time in June 2023 wrapping up the debt ceiling drama that had Washington and the financial markets on tenterhooks for weeks.

The question that poses itself here is, given that members of the Republican Party have sought to blame him for the attack on Trump, was the Oval Office image a show of his strength as the US President?

Republicans blame Biden for Trump shooting

Within hours of the attack on Donald Trump, Biden's re-election campaigning team, as per Reuters, raced to change their campaign. The team was pulling down television ads and suspending political communications, some of which contained verbal attacks against former president Trump.

This comes as Senator J D Vance, one of the people on the list of the Republican's potential running mates, claimed that the Biden campaign "rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination," reports AFP.

Not only Vance, but a growing number of Republicans have sought to pin the blame on Democrats. It must be noted that the shooter, Thomas Crooks, was a registered Republican who had made donations to the left, but the FBI has, as of now, not identified his ideology.

(With inputs from agencies)