George W. Bush, Biden to Join Obama in Dallas
President and predecessor will deliver remarks at memorial for police officers
Updated 7/11 8:15 a.m.
President Barack Obama will be joined by former President George W. Bush on Tuesday in Dallas at an interfaith memorial service for the police officers fatally shot during an attack last week.
The president returned to Washington on Sunday night, cutting short by a day a European visit to Poland and Spain. Obama’s visit to Spain was the first official one by an American president to the country in 15 years.
The White House announced that Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., also will attend the Dallas service. Delivering the White House’s weekly address on Saturday, Biden urged unity after a spate of police-related shootings that are tinged with racial tensions.
“So while we’re being tested, we can’t be pulled apart. We are America, with bonds that hold us together,” Biden said. “We endure, we persevere, we overcome, we stand together.”
Five police officers were killed and seven wounded following a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas on Thursday against the police killings of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
Early Friday, Obama called the attack in Dallas “vicious, calculated and despicable,” and promised city leaders the full resources of the federal government to ensure “justice will be done.”