President & First Lady Mourn With Maine Community

November 3, 2023 4:57 am

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden added a bouquet of white flowers Friday to a makeshift memorial outside Schemengees Bar and Grille, one of the scenes of the state’s deadliest mass shooting.  They stood for a moment of silence before bending over to hug bar owner Kathy Lebel. Eight people died there in the Oct. 25 massacre, along with seven at the nearby Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley. Three others died at hospitals.  Biden came to Lewiston to do what presidents do in these moments of horror and grief; lend comfort to the families of the victims and to show support for a reeling community. But it’s a type of trip that has become all too familiar, despite a bipartisan gun safety law passed last year after another mass shooting, and despite a series of executive orders by the president meant to stop gun violence.  “Too many times the president and first lady have traveled to communities completely torn apart by gun violence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on the eve of the Bidens’ trip on Friday. “We can’t accept it as normal.”  Besides those killed, 13 people were injured in the shootings.  (Photo:  AP)