Joe Biden to visit Buffalo in wake of mass shooting

Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are to visit Buffalo on Tuesday, where their first stop will be a makeshift memorial outside the supermarket where the mass shooting took place.

When Joe Biden talks about his decision to run against President Donald Trump in 2020, the story always starts with Charlottesville.

He says it was the men with torches shouting bigoted slogans that drove him to join what he calls the “battle for the soul of America.”

Now Biden is facing the latest deadly manifestation of hatred after an apparent white supremacist targeted Black people with an assault rifle at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and left 10 people dead, the most lethal racist attack since he took office.

The president and first lady Jill Biden are to visit the city on Tuesday, where their first stop will be a makeshift memorial outside the supermarket. They’re also expected to meet privately with families of the victims, first responders and local officials before the president delivers public remarks.

In a speech at a nearby community centre, Biden plans to call for stricter gun laws and urge Americans to reject racism and embrace the nation’s diversity, the White House said.

It’s a message that Biden has delivered several times since he became the first president to specifically address white supremacy in an inaugural speech, calling it “domestic terrorism that we must confront.”

However, such beliefs remain an entrenched threat at a time when his administration has been preoccupied with crises involving the pandemic, inflation and the war in Ukraine.

“It’s important for him to show up for the families and the community and express his condolences,” said Derrick Johnson, the president of the NAACP. “But we’re more concerned with preventing this from happening in the future.”