Emotional Biden in Buffalo condemns those who push ‘perverse’ replacement theory

 President Joe Biden said “white supremacy is a poison” and vowed “hate will not prevail” during a trip Tuesday to Buffalo, New York, where he grieved with family members of 10 victims killed Saturday in a racially motivated mass shooting at a supermarket.

“What happened here is simple, straightforward terrorism,” Biden said. “Domestic terrorism inflicted in the service of hate and a vicious thirst for power that defines one group of people being inherently inferior.”

After arriving in Buffalo in the morning, the Bidens visited a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims across from the supermarket. Jill Biden placed a bouquet of white flowers near the base of a tree covered with tributes to the victims. The president crossed himself on his chest as the first couple reflected in silence.

The Bidens then moved to the Delavan Grider Community Center, where they met with families, first responders and law enforcement officials. Jill Biden thanked the families for “opening up your hearts to us and for letting us be with you today.

“God bless you,” she said. 

Biden and first lady Jill Biden met with families of the shooting victims, who ranged from 32 to 86 years old. Most were Black, either shopping or working at a Tops Friendly Market in one of Buffalo’s highest concentrated African American neighborhoods. The slain included a civil rights advocate, a deacon and a heroic security guard. 

The president condemned the gunman’s “hateful, perverse ideology rooted in fear and racism” and called out those who have pushed the “Great Replacement Theory” – the belief that white Americans are being systematically “replaced” by immigrants and minorities.

Biden said that “through the media and politics,” the Internet has “radicalized angry, lost and isolated individuals” into believing the theory.

“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, though not singling out any names. “We’ve now seen too many times the deadly, destructive violence this ideology unleashes.”