Hillary Clinton canceled a campaign rally with Vice President Joe Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Friday, in the aftermath of the shootings in Dallas, Texas, the previous night that left five police officers dead.
In a statement announcing the postponement of the joint rally, the Clinton campaign cited “the tragic events in Dallas.” The former secretary of state still plans to visit he African Methodist Episcopal Convention in Philadelphia later in the day, where she will address the Dallas tragedy, according to a campaign official.
Friday marks the second time in less than a month that the Clinton campaign has canceled a major rally in the aftermath of a shooting. Last month, a Wisconsin event with President Barack Obama was pushed back following a terrorist attack in Orlando that killed 49 people — the worst act of terrorism in the United States since the September 11 attacks in 2001.
“I mourn for the officers shot while doing their sacred duty to protect peaceful protesters, for their families & all who serve with them. -H” Clinton tweeted Friday, using her signature “-H” as a sign that it was written by Clinton, and not by staff.
Clinton also called local Dallas elected officials and leaders including Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins to express solidarity and condolences, and to offer help, according to an aide.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also scrapped his campaign events Friday.
The Dallas shooting took place in the middle of a protest about police violence, instigated by the deaths of two African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement this week.
The pair of shootings had sparked a national uproar, and once again thrust the issue of police violence directed at non-whites into the political spotlight in the middle of the 2016 presidential election. Clinton had planned to address the incidents in Scranton, according to an aide.
“She will renew her calls to ensure justice is served and will reemphasize the urgent need to reform our broken criminal justice system,” the aide said, in comments made before the Dallas shooting.
On Tuesday, 37-year-old Alton Sterling was shot dead by a police officer outside of a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A cell phone video shows an officer pinning Sterling to the ground, and after some yelling, multiple gunshots go off.
Then on Thursday, the aftermath of another fatal shooting was captured on camera in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. Using her cell phone, Diamond Reynolds showed the world her bloodied boyfriend, Philando Castile, sitting limp next to her in the car. “You shot four bullets into him, sir. He was just getting his license and registration, sir,” Reynolds says to the police officer in the video.
On Friday, five police officers were killed, gunned down at a Dallas demonstration, marking the single deadliest attack on law enforcement since September 11, 2001. Eleven officers total were shot, three suspects were in custody and a fourth suspect died.
The fatalities have unleashed a national public outcry. Obama delivered two statements from Warsaw, Poland. The first one came early Friday right after he landed, saying the shooting incidents earlier this week were “symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system.” The second came hours later following the events in Dallas, when Obama vowed a harsh punishment for perpetrators and called the incident “a vicious, calculated and despicable attack on law enforcement.”
Clinton and Biden hit the road for the first time
Biden was poised to be the latest in a string of high-profile Democratic surrogates to hit the trail with Clinton. Obama held his first joint event with his 2008 rival in North Carolina on Tuesday, and last week, it was popular Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren who brought her star power to the national stage at a rally in Ohio.
Biden and Clinton had also planned to fundraise together in Scranton after the public rally. This event has also been canceled.
The vice president’s appearance with Clinton was to come almost nine months after he had closed the door on a 2016 run of his own.
The decision, announced last October from the White House Rose Garden, came after months of painful deliberations. Just months before, Biden’s son, Beau, had died — a tragedy that the vice president acknowledged was an important factor in ultimately abandoning his dreams of a third White House run.
Long-time friend Ted Kaufman, who briefly succeeded Biden in the Senate, told CNN that the vice president has not “ever looked back.”
“Once he made the decision, I think that was the decision,” he said. “I think we’ve reached a point in the campaign where he’s been asked to help and he’s helping.”