BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York Governor Kathy Hochul offered a message of hope for her hometown on Tuesday at President Biden's event at the at the Delavan Grider Community Center.
President Biden's appearance came three days after a mass shooting at the Tops Market of Jefferson Avenue, where 10 people were killed and three more wounded.
As she has in days past, Hochul shared her anger about what happened.
"We're still trying to comprehend this," Hochul said. "But there's also this other side of our broken heart that is filled with some anger, and it's because we're human beings."
Hochul lashed out about racism and white nationalism, and how they are "now becoming way too mainstream. They are not just on the dark web anymore. They're starting to percolate up, where actually elected officials are starting to embrace them and talk about them.
Hochul was among the officials who accompanied President Biden to various stops on his Buffalo trip, along with U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.
Local police and fire personnel were also on hand.
After President Biden's plane touched down at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, the group travel to the Top Market on Jefferson Avenue and laid flowers at a nearby tribute to the victims.
Hochul also spoke out against gun violence and emphasized the need for a national gun policy "that's commonsense, like we have here in New York," she said.
"We will get through this because this is Buffalo. We're tough," Hochul said. "But this should not just provoke a conversation in this community.
"This needs to stimulate a national conversation about how we make sure that we're doing everything we humanly can to eradicate this evil, and send it back under the rock from which it came. That is what we must do."