ATLANTA -- President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris offered solace to Asian Americans and a reeling nation Friday as they visited Atlanta just days after a gunman killed eight people, most of them Asian American women.
The visit, during a nationwide spike of anti-Asian violence, has added resonance with the presence of Harris, the first person of South Asian descent to hold national office. And it comes as Biden on Friday expressed support for the covid-19 Hate Crimes Act, a bill that would strengthen the government's reporting and response to hate crimes and provide resources to Asian American communities.
"Hate can have no safe harbor in America," Biden said, calling on Americans to stand up to bigotry when they see it. "Our silence is complicity. We cannot be complicit."
Biden said "it was heart-wrenching to listen to" Asian American state legislators and other community leaders discuss living in fear of violence during their meeting before he and Harris delivered remarks at Emory University.
"Racism is real in America. And it has always been. Xenophobia is real in America, and always has been. Sexism, too," said Harris. "The president and I will not be silent. We will not stand by. We will always speak out against violence, hate crimes and discrimination, wherever and whenever it occurs."
Their trip was planned before the shooting, as part of a tour aimed at selling the benefits of the latest pandemic relief legislation. But Biden and Harris instead spent much of their visit consoling a community whose growing voting power helped secure their victory in Georgia and beyond.
Activists have seen a rise of racist attacks. Nearly 3,800 incidents have been reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a California-based reporting center for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and its partner advocacy groups, since March 2020.
Biden and Harris both implicitly criticized former President Donald Trump, who has referred to covid-19 as the "China virus."
"For the last year we've had people in positions of incredible power scapegoating Asian Americans," said Harris, "people with the biggest pulpits, spreading this kind of hate."
"We've always known words have consequences," Biden said. "It is the 'coronavirus.' Full stop."
Biden had denounced hate crimes against Asian Americans before the shootings, most notably last week during a prime-time speech marking one year since covid-19 was declared a global pandemic.
"At this very moment, so many of them -- our fellow Americans -- they're on the front lines of this pandemic, trying to save lives, and still -- still -- they are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America," Biden said then. "It's wrong, it's un-American, and it must stop."
As the fastest-growing racial demographic in the U.S. electorate, Asian Americans are gaining political influence across the country. In California, two Korean American Republican women made history with their congressional victories. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, typically dominated by Democrats, has its largest roster ever, including Asian American and Pacific Islander members and others who represent significant numbers of Asian Americans.
"We're becoming increasingly more visible and active in the political ecosystem," said Georgia state Sen. Michelle Au, a Democrat who represents part of the growing, diversifying suburbs north of Atlanta. Yet, Au said, "What I've heard personally, and what I have felt, is that people sometimes don't tend to listen to us."
Au said a White House spotlight, especially amid tragedy, is welcomed by a community often overshadowed in national conversations about diversity. She said Trump and other Republicans brushed off charges of racism when they dubbed the coronavirus the "China virus" because of its origins.
"To have them talk about it in this way, so publicly, and to say AAPI [Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders], or to note that our communities are going through difficult times, is huge," Au said.
"This is a great opportunity to hear the concerns of those he serves, but also to hopefully share some ideas that may help reduce and begin to ameliorate the rise in anti-Asian hate that we've seen," said Sam Park, one of several Asian American state lawmakers with whom Biden met.
Park, a Democrat, said he appreciated how quickly Biden's team reached out after the shootings. The next morning, he got a call from Cedric Richmond, the former congressman who leads the White House Office of Public Engagement, to offer condolences and support. Soon after, he learned that Biden was dropping plans for a political event in Georgia and arranging meetings with Asian American leaders.
"The White House and the president took such prompt action and really demonstrated that they cared," Park said.
VICTIMS IDENTIFIED
Hours before Biden and Harris arrived in Atlanta, the names of four additional victims in the shootings were released.
The Fulton County medical examiner's office said the four victims at two Atlanta businesses are Soon C. Park, 74; Hyun J. Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong A. Yue, 63. Family members identified Grant by her maiden name, Hyun Jung Kim.
The medical examiner performed autopsies on all four victims Wednesday, saying all but Suncha Kim died Tuesday from gunshots to the head. She died from a gunshot to the chest.
Three of the women died at the Gold Spa in Atlanta, while the fourth died across the street at Aromatherapy Spa.
A 21-year-old white man, Robert Aaron Long, is charged with murder in Tuesday's slayings. He's also accused of killing four people and wounding a fifth at Youngs Asian Massage Parlor near Woodstock, in Atlanta's northwestern suburbs.
Cherokee County authorities earlier identified the dead there as Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Xiaojie Tan, 49, who owned the business.
Police continue to investigate the shootings, with Deputy Atlanta Police Chief Charles Hampton Jr. saying Thursday that "nothing is off the table" in his department's inquiry, including whether the slayings were a hate crime.
The Cherokee County sheriff's office said it also was investigating whether the killings were hate crimes.
Georgia lawmakers last year passed a hate crimes law that allows additional penalties to be imposed for certain offenses when motivated by a victim's race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender or disability. A hate crime is not a standalone crime under the law, but it can be used to add time to a sentence once someone is convicted of another crime.
Investigators believe Long had previously visited two of the Atlanta massage parlors where four of the women were killed, Hampton said.
Long told police the attacks were not racially motivated. He claimed to have a sex addiction, and authorities said he apparently lashed out at what he saw as sources of temptation.
Crabapple First Baptist Church, where Long was an active member, issued a statement Friday saying it was seeking to remove Long from membership, saying "we can no longer affirm that he is truly a regenerate believer in Jesus Christ."
The church said its teaching does not condone violence against Asian Americans or women and it's improper to view women as somehow responsible for male sexual urges.
"Each person is responsible for his or her own sin," the church said. "In this case, the shooter is solely responsible for his heinous actions, not the victims who were targeted."
Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan Lemire, Jeff Amy, Zeke Miller, Bill Barrow and Kate Brumback of The Associated Press; and by Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times.
