LIVE: Biden, Harris Deliver Remarks in Atlanta to Condemn Attacks on Asian Americans

(Mar. 19) President Joe Biden will denounce racially motivated attacks on Asian Americans in an Atlanta speech on Friday, following the murders of eight people in shootings this week at spas around the city.

The deaths, which included six Asian women, have raised nationwide alarm about an increase of such incidents during the pandemic. Biden set aside plans for a more political trip in which he would promote his $1.9 trillion stimulus to focus on the violence.

“He understands and knows the past year that the community has been vilified, they’ve been scapegoated and they’ve been attacked,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will also visit the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to receive an update on the pandemic.

Police say they’re still investigating the motive of the man they’ve arrested for the shootings, who frequented businesses like the ones he attacked, but the killings renewed concerns about threats and violence against Asian Americans after former President Donald Trump repeatedly blamed the coronavirus outbreak on China.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said this week that Trump bears some blame for the violence, citing his frequently offensive comments about the origins of the virus.

A coalition called Stop AAPI Hate has recorded nearly 3,800 incidents of harassment, assault and civil rights violations against Asian Americans between March 19, 2020 and the end of February, and found that Asian-American woman report “hate incidents” more than twice as often as men. AAPI is an acronym for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Police on Wednesday arrested Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old White man, in connection with the Atlanta-area murders. Biden tweeted later that day that the motives of the shooter remain unknown but the “Asian-American community is feeling enormous pain tonight.”

“The recent attacks against the community are un-American,” Biden said. “They must stop.”

The president on Thursday ordered U.S. flags on federal property lowered to half-staff to honor the victims.

The scheduling change deprived Biden of a chance to take a victory lap for his pandemic relief law in a key political battleground. The trip was planned as part of a nationwide tour by Biden, Harris, their spouses and other officials to promote the measure.

Georgia, once a Republican bastion, voted narrowly for Biden in 2020 and then elected two Democrats in runoff elections in January to the Senate, giving the president’s party control of the chamber.

Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock both made Biden’s promise of $2,000 direct payments from another round of stimulus a central issue in their campaigns. Their victories allowed Democrats to pass the relief package through Congress without Republican support.

During his trip, Biden plans to meet with Ossoff and Warnock, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who led an effort to mobilize Black voters in the election.

White House officials had said they were looking forward to the trip as a chance to plug the legislation’s benefits and ensure the president and Democrats receive credit for the law. Warnock is running for a full term in next year’s midterm elections and Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, faces re-election.

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