Biden in Buffalo vows 'white supremacy will not have the last word'

President Joe Biden on Tuesday labeled the deadly shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., as “domestic terrorism” and vowed that the white supremacist ideology espoused by the gunman must not be allowed to prevail.

“What happened here is simple and straightforward: terrorism. Terrorism. Domestic terrorism,” Biden said in a speech during a visit to Buffalo. “Violence inflicted in the service of hate and a vicious thirst for power that defines one group of people being inherently inferior to any other group.”

The president’s remarks come after a shooter who had posted a racist screed online opened fire at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo on Saturday, leaving 10 people dead. The person charged with the shooting, an 18-year-old white man, drove 200 miles for the attack, which authorities say was fueled by a racist and anti-immigrant agenda.

Federal authorities are investigating the attack as a hate crime.

During the speech, Biden launched into a fiery rebuke of the white supremacy that sparked the Buffalo attack and others in recent years, while also tying the shooting to broader ideological battles in the U.S. Without naming names, Biden came down hard on far-right figures who have promoted white supremacist ideas and theories out of the desire for power and money.

Biden is also coming face-to-face with the same type of violent extremism that he said solidified his desire to run for president following the riots in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. Now, more than a year into his term as president, Biden said white supremacy has been “allowed to fester and grow right in front of our eyes.”

“No more,” he said. “I mean, no more.”

Biden on Tuesday called out the media, political figures and the internet for radicalizing “angry, alienated, lost and isolated individuals” into believing "replacement theory," a racist concept that casts minorities as an existential threat to white people. Prominent Republican and conservative media figures have promoted the far-right ideology, including popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

“I call on all Americans to reject the lie, and I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain and for profit,” Biden said.

Asked by the press after his speech whether members of Congress or Carlson are to blame for replacement theory fueling violence, Biden said that those who advance it deserve some blame "not for this particular crime, but it serves no purpose, no purpose, except for profit and/or political benefit."

In his Tuesday remarks, the president also called white supremacy a “poison” that has invoked several other previous attacks, including the deadly rally in Charlottesville and the mass shootings in Charleston, S.C.; El Paso, Texas; and Pittsburgh. He said the ideology “has no place in America.”

“In America evil will not win. I promise you. Hate will not prevail, and white supremacy will not have the last word,” Biden said.

He named a number of actions that can be taken to prevent future attacks, including passing legislation to “keep assault weapons off our streets” and addressing “the relentless exploitation of the internet to recruit and mobilize terrorism.” He also called on Americans to stand up and reject white supremacy.

“These actions we have seen in these hate-filled attacks represent the views of a hateful minority,” Biden said. “We can't allow them to distort America, the real America. We can't allow them to destroy the soul of the nation.”

The president and first lady Jill Biden’s trip to Buffalo on Tuesday also included a visit to a memorial for the victims at the site of the attack. They then met with the families of the victims, law enforcement, first responders and community leaders.

Biden took time during his speech to name each of the victims and share a few personal details about each one. He appeared to get choked up when describing one of the victims, 53-year-old Andre Mackneil, who had gone to the market to get his 3-year-old son a birthday cake when he was shot and killed.

“His son is celebrating a birthday, asking, ‘Where is daddy?’” Biden said.

The president alluded to his own family’s history of tragic deaths, telling the families of the victims that while it’s not the same situation, “we know a little bit of what it's like to lose a piece of your soul.” He compared the feeling to having a “black hole in your chest and you’re being sucked into it.”

“I can tell you now from our personal experience and many others who we've met, the day is going to come, it will come, when your loved one brings a smile as you remember him or her,” Biden said. “It might take more than a season, but our prayer for you is that time comes sooner or later, but I promise you it will come.”