President Joe Biden on Friday called on U.S. lawmakers to quickly pass a COVID-19 hate crimes bill, saying while the motive was still unknown in this week’s shooting in Georgia, the nation faced an “ongoing crisis of gender-based and anti-Asian violence.”
“It’s time for Congress to codify and expand upon these actions — because every person in our nation deserves to live their lives with safety, dignity, and respect,” he said in a statement released as the president headed to Atlanta to meet with Asian American leaders.
Shootings at two massage parlors in Atlanta and one in the suburbs Tuesday evening left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent, authorities said. A 21-year-old man suspected in the shootings was taken into custody in southwest Georgia hours later after a manhunt, police said.
Newsmax wires contributed to this report.
Source: Newmax
