President Biden on Tuesday seemingly responded to Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-S.C.) declaration during a Fox News appearance that if former President Donald Trump is prosecuted over his handling of classified material, it would lead to "riots in the street."
"No one expects politics to be patty cake — sometimes it's mean as hell," Biden said while addressing a crowd in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. "But the idea you turn on a television and see senior senators and congressmen saying, 'If such and such happens, there'll be blood on the street?' Where the hell are we?"
Graham compared Trump taking classified material from the White House to his Florida residence to Hillary Clinton using a private email server during her time as secretary of state. A 2019 investigation by the State Department found "there was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information" by Clinton.
Biden also said that in order for there to be a safer United States, everyone must "uphold the rule of law. Not the rule of any one party or any one person." Despite how divided it might feel in the country, unity can still be achieved, Biden added, bringing up how he often worked with Republicans while in the Senate. "I got a lot done," Biden said. "We respected each other. We disagreed on principle. We never had lunch together. Not a joke. [But] what in God's name has happened to that? ... Folks, let's bring it back. We can do this."