Biden talks HBCU funding, apparent assassination attempt on Trump, while in Philly

President Joe Biden announced more than $1 billion in additional funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) while speaking in Philadelphia on Monday.

Biden announced additional federal investments at HBCUs totaling $1.3 billion while speaking at the National HBCU Week Conference in Center City. He also said the new investments combined with the previously announced $16 billion set a record of over $17 billion in federal investments in HBCUs from 2021 through 2024.

“The Biden Harris Administration has advanced racial equity, economic opportunity, and educational excellence through HBCUs since Day One, including by reestablishing the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” a spokesperson for the Biden Administration wrote. “The Biden-Harris Administration is the most diverse administration in history and many members are HBCU graduates, including Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Willie Phillips.”

In addition to the HBCU announcement, Biden also addressed and condemned the apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Florida over the weekend.

“I’ve always condemned political violence,” Biden said. “In America we resolve our differences peacefully at the ballot box, not at the end of the gun. America has suffered too many times the tragedy of an assassin’s bullet. It solves nothing and just tears the country apart. We must do everything we can to prevent it and never give it any oxygen.”

Biden in his speech added that Ronald Rowe, the acting director of the Secret Service, was in Florida “assessing what happened and determining whether any further adjustments need to be made to ensure” Trump’s safety.

Prior to his stop in Philadelphia, Biden also told reporters outside the White House that he was thankful Trump was OK. He also stated he believed the Secret Service needed more help and that Congress should look into their needs.

Trump, meanwhile, claimed without evidence on Monday that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ previous comments calling him a threat to democracy inspired the assassination attempt on his life.

“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out,” Trump said in comments to Fox News Digital.

The Republican former president's statements are a sharp departure from how he reacted after an assassination attempt in July during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which a bullet grazed his ear.

Then, Trump called for national unity, saying in a social media post that “it is more important than ever that we stand United.” A few days later, though, the former president returned to his usual commentary where he has sharply criticized Democrats and relishes political bombast.

While authorities continue to investigate the motives of both the gunman in Pennsylvania and the person arrested Sunday in Florida, Trump has made clear that he sees attempts on his life as politically motivated — and blames his rivals for them.

That's despite Trump himself drawing repeated criticism for his rhetoric. He has talked about prosecuting his political rivals and alleged without evidence that Democrats have brought the felony cases against him for political reasons.

In a post on his social media site on Monday, Trump again claimed that he had been the target of politically motivated attacks, writing that the left “has taken politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.” He said “it will only get worse” and then veered into comments about immigration, even though there is no evidence the person arrested in connection with the apparent assassination attempt was an immigrant.

That follows the former president during last week's debate and in the days after it amplifying false rumors that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets. The community days later evacuated schools and government buildings amid bomb threats, adding to the sense of an especially unstable and tense moment in America even before Sunday’s stunning development.