Biden urges Americans to lower temperature in politics' after Trump shooting

US President Joe Biden repeated calls for unity that he has made since the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump Saturday evening.

According to ABC News, in an Oval Office address to the nation Sunday night, the president said, "My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies, we’re neighbors, we’re friends, co-workers, citizens, and most importantly, we are fellow Americans. We must stand together."

"Yesterday's shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how are we go forward from here. Thankfully, former Trump is not seriously injured," he continued in his third Oval Office speech.

"Tonight, I want to speak to what we do know: a former president was shot, an American citizen killed, while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing," referring to the spectator killed. "We cannot, we must not go down this road in America," he said.

"Violence has never been the answer," he said, "whether it's with members of Congress of both parties being targeted and shot, or a violent mob attacking the Capitol on January 6th or a brutal attack on the spouse of the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, or information and intimidation and election officials or the kidnapping plot against a sitting governor, or an attempted assassination on Donald Trump."

He continued, saying, "in America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box. You know, that's how we do it at the battle box, not with bullets. The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin."

Earlier Sunday, Biden said, "Last night I spoke with Donald Trump. I am sincerely grateful that he’s doing well, and recovering. We had a short but good conversation. Jill and I are keeping him and his family in our prayers," he said, speaking about the assassination aftermath before reporters gathered the White House Roosevelt Room.

"An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as -- as a nation, everything. It's not who we are as a nation. It's not American. And we cannot allow this to happen," he continued.

"Unity is the most elusive goal of all, but nothing is important than that right now, unity. We’ll debate and we’ll disagree, it's not-- that's not going to change. But it's going to -- we're going to not lose sight of the fact who we are as Americans," he said.

He cautioned against speculation about the shooter's motive, saying it wasn't yet known.

And he said he had ordered an independent review of how security was handled at the political rally in Pennsylvania amid congressional Republican demands for investigative hearings.

He ended by saying he would speak to the nation Sunday night and the White House said afterward his address from the Oval Office would take place at 8 p.m. ET.

Biden, who was flanked by Garland, Mayorkas and Vice President Kamala Harris, did not take questions.