President Biden and Vice President meet with Asian American leaders, they paved a way to discuss the recent rise in attacks against the Asian American community.
The death of eight people, including six Asian American women urged the meeting to discuss their fate in the country.
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Officials in Georgia said on Wednesday morning press briefing, that the suspect took responsibility and claimed it wasn’t racially motivated, but instead was due to his self-proclaimed “sex addiction.” But Asian Americans in Georgia and across the country are reeling from the shootings, which took place after a year of increased attacks on Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.
A report by the group Stop APPI Hate found Asian Americans faced 3,800 hate incidents in the past year.
While in Georgia, Mr. Biden and Harris will also visit the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday to receive an update on efforts to combat the pandemic.
CBS News has confirmed that the president will meet with Democrat Stacey Abrams as well. Her efforts to mobilize voters ahead of the 2020 election helped Mr. Biden and Democratic Senate candidates in Georgia win the state by a narrow margin.
The president released a statement on Friday before heading to Georgia urging Congress to pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which would “expedite the federal government’s response to the rise of hate crimes exacerbated during the pandemic, support state, and local governments to improve hate crimes reporting, and ensure that hate crimes information is more accessible to Asian American communities.”