REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden said Saturday that “everybody must condemn” the suspected assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Addressing the nation about two hours after the shooting, Biden said he was relieved that Trump is reportedly “doing well.” He said he had been unable to reach Trump before his remarks, but the White House said he did speak to Trump several hours later.
“We cannot allow this to be happening,” Biden said. “The idea that there’s violence in America like this is just unheard of."
Biden, speaking without a teleprompter, said he was waiting for additional information before formally calling the attack an attempted assassination on the former president.
“I have an opinion, but I don’t have any facts,” he told reporters, pledging to provide updates as he learns more.
After midnight, he returned to the White House, cutting short a weekend stay in Delaware. The White House said he and Vice President Kamala Harris will receive an updated briefing from homeland security and law enforcement officials Sunday morning.
The president delivered remarks from the White House’s emergency briefing room in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, which is set up whenever the president travels to allow him to deliver remarks to the country in a matter of minutes. He was spending the weekend at his beach home and was at a nearby church for mass when the shooting occurred.
As he left the church, reporters asked if the president had been briefed about the shooting. Biden turned toward reporters with a serious look on his face but replied simply, “no,” before stepping into his motorcade.
Biden received an “initial briefing” from aides moments later then convened security officials for a more in-depth update from Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the United States Secret Service, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall.
Many Republicans quickly blamed the violence on Biden and his allies, arguing that sustained attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment. They pointed in particular to a comment Biden made to donors on July 8, saying “it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.”
The FBI early Sunday identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. There was no immediate information on his motivations.
The Biden campaign said Saturday that it was pausing all messaging to supporters and working to pull down all of its television ads as quickly as possible in light of the shooting.
Harris said in a statement that she was also briefed, adding that she and her husband “are relieved" that Trump was not seriously inured.
“We are praying for him, his family, and all those who have been injured and impacted by this senseless shooting,” she said.
President Joe Biden arrives on Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Saturday, July 13, 2024. President Biden is going back to Washington from Delaware earlier than planned following the attack at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Joe Biden arrives to speak, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Rehoboth Beach, Del., addressing news that gunshots rang out at Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump's Pennsylvania campaign rally. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Joe Biden speaks, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Rehoboth Beach, Del., addressing news that gunshots rang out at Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump's Pennsylvania campaign rally. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Joe Biden speaks, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Rehoboth Beach, Del., addressing news that gunshots rang out at Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump's Pennsylvania campaign rally. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
AVIGNON, France (AP) — A woman who was allegedly drugged by her now ex-husband so that she could be raped while unconscious by other men testified Thursday that her world collapsed when police uncovered the years of alleged abuse.
Speaking in a calm and clear voice, Gisèle Pélicot detailed to the court in the southern French city of Avignon the horror of discovering that her former spouse systematically filmed the suspected rapes by dozens of men — storing thousands of images that police investigators later found.
“It’s unbearable,” she testified. "I have so much to say that I don’t always know where to start.”
Dominique Pélicot, now 71, and 50 other men are standing trial on charges of aggravated rape and face up to 20 years in prison. The trial started on Monday and is expected to run until December. Thursday marked the first time that Gisèle Pélicot had testified.
The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify victims of sexual crimes. But Gisèle Pélicot’s lawyer, Stéphane Babonneau, said she accepted that her name be published in the same way that she insisted that the trial be held in public.
She told the court that she hopes her testimony might help spare other women from similar ordeals. She said she pushed for the trial in open court in solidarity with other women who go unrecognized as victims of sexual crimes.
She and her husband of 50 years had three children. When they retired, the couple moved into a house in a small town in Provence, before her world was torn apart in late 2020.
“I thought we were a close couple,” she told the court.
But a security agent caught her husband taking photos of women’s crotches in a supermarket, leading investigators to search Dominique Pélicot's phone and computer. They found thousands of photographs and videos of men appearing to rape Gisèle in their home while she appears to be unconscious.
Shocked, she left her husband after police showed her some of the images.
“For me, everything collapses,” she testified. “These are scenes of barbarity, of rape.”
She left with two suitcases, “all that was left for me of 50 years of life together.” Since then, she said, “I no longer have an identity. ... I don’t know if I’ll ever rebuild myself.”
Police investigators found communications Dominique Pélicot allegedly sent on a messaging website commonly used by criminals, in which he invited men to sexually abuse his wife. The website has been shut down.
Crude details of the alleged abuses, which investigators said began in 2011, and of the elaborate system Pélicot put into place over 10 years have emerged during the trial.
During questioning earlier, Dominique Pélicot told investigators that men invited to the couple's home had to follow certain rules — they could not talk loudly, had to remove their clothes in the kitchen, could not wear perfume nor smell of tobacco.
They sometimes had to wait up to an hour and a half on a nearby parking lot for the drug to take full effect and render Gisèle Pélicot unconscious.
“I was sacrificed on the altar of vice," she testified. “They regarded me like a rag doll, like a garbage bag.”
Because Dominique Pélicot videotaped the alleged rapes, police were able to track down — over a period of two years — a majority of the 72 suspects they were seeking.
Besides Pélicot, 50 other men, aged 22 to 70, are standing trial. Several defendants are denying some of the accusations against them, alleging they were manipulated by Pélicot.
Over the next few months, the defendants will appear in small groups before a panel of five judges, with Pélicot scheduled to speak next week. Psychologists, psychiatrists and computer experts will also testify.
Vaux-Montagny reported from Lyon, France
Lawyer Beatrice Zavarro walks during the trial of her client, defendant Dominique Pelicot, in the Avignon court house, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. A woman who was allegedly drugged by her now ex-husband so that she could be raped while unconscious by other men is testifying in a court in France about her yearslong ordeal. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
The sons of Gisele Pelicot, Florian, right, David, left, and her daughter Caroline Darian, center, arrive in the Avignon court house, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Gisele Pelicot, center, arrives in the Avignon court house, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. A woman allegedly drugged by her ex-husband so that she could be raped by other men while she laid unconscious, is expected to testify before a panel of French judges. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Gisele Pelicot arrives in the Avignon court house, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. A woman allegedly drugged by her ex-husband so that she could be raped by other men while she laid unconscious, is expected to testify before a panel of French judges. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Police officers walk in the Avignon court house prior to the trial of Dominique Pelicot, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. A woman allegedly drugged by her ex-husband so that she could be raped by other men while she laid unconscious, is expected to testify before a panel of French judges. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Gisele Pelicot arrives in the Avignon court house, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. A woman allegedly drugged by her ex-husband so that she could be raped by other men while she laid unconscious, is expected to testify before a panel of French judges. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Gisele Pelicot, center, arrives in the Avignon court house, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. A woman allegedly drugged by her ex-husband so that she could be raped by other men while she laid unconscious, is expected to testify before a panel of French judges. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
Gisele Pelicot, left, arrives in the Avignon court house, in Avignon, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. A woman allegedly drugged by her ex-husband so that she could be raped by other men while she laid unconscious, is expected to testify before a panel of French judges. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
