In his first prime-time address to the nation on Thursday, President Joe Biden forcefully condemned the rise in attacks against Asian Americans but offered no new details on what his administration was doing to confront the violence.
“At this very moment, so many of them–our fellow Americans–they’re on the front lines of this pandemic trying to save lives,” said Biden. “And still, they are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America.”
“It’s wrong, it’s un-American, and it must stop,” he concluded.
Community activists have been pressuring the White House to address the surge in anti-Asian attacks for months, and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) advocacy groups participated in a virtual listening session last week to discuss the hate incidents with senior administration staff.
“The President is committed to ending anti-Asian violence and bias, and he has made clear that it's the policy of this administration to condemn and combat xenophobia against Asian Americans wherever it exists,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
Advocacy groups also met separately with the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday, a source told The Yappie. In a statement, the agency said that it was monitoring reports from the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council and Stop AAPI Hate “to identify which might be actionable under federal hate crime statutes.”
In Congress, Rep. Grace Meng (D-New York) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) announced plans to introduce legislation that would create a new position at the Justice Department “to facilitate the review of hate crimes and provide oversight of hate crimes related to COVID-19,” USA Today’s Nicholas Wu reported Thursday.
President Biden previously referenced the surge in anti-Asian hate in a White House Lunar New Year video released in February, describing it as “a stain on our national character."
In January, he signed a largely symbolic memorandum directing the Justice Department to improve the tracking of hate incidents targeting AAPIs. The memo also asked the Attorney General to engage with AAPI communities to halt further harassment and violence.
