LEWISTON — During a visit to a community still reeling from a mass shooting nine days earlier, President Joe Biden said Friday that he came to Lewiston “to grieve with you and to make sure you know that you’re not alone.”
It’s a visit he’s made to so many shattered communities over the years, the president said, that there “are too many to count.”
Biden said “an honest conversation” is needed to enact “common-sense, reasonable, responsible” measures “to protect our children, our families, our communities” so Americans can safely go to a restaurant, a bowling alley or a school.
Avoiding the wrenching politics that surround gun control, the president did not elaborate. He spent the bulk of his time in Lewiston speaking to grieving families.
Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, visited the two venues attacked on Oct. 25 — placing flowers outside Schemengees Bar & Grille on Lincoln Street and talking with first responders at Just-In-Time Recreation on Mollison Way — before meeting privately for a couple of hours with the families of victims and some survivors at Geiger Elementary School.
President Joe Biden hugs Schemengees Bar & Grille owner Kathy Lebel on Friday afternoon in front of her business on Lincoln Street in Lewiston, the scene of a mass shooting last week. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
Auburn City Council member LeRoy Walker, whose son Joseph was among the 18 slain, said Biden was soft-spoken and mostly listened to what families had to say.
“Everyone seemed pretty calm and settled down,” Walker said. The room was quiet, he said, save for some tears from families and young children.
Walker said about 80 people were sitting at a dozen tables. Jill Biden spoke with each family first, followed by the president.
Walker said the president, who had two children die over the years, empathized with those who lost loved ones.
“We know what it’s like to lose a piece of our soul,” Biden said.
“Whatever was in his heart seemed to work OK with people,” Walker said. “I’m really glad he came here. I think it did really help, not just us, but the community.”
Arthur Barnard, whose son, Arthur Strout, was among the victims, said the visit from the president felt meaningful.
“I liked the way he explained how he got by after his own losses,” he said.
Biden “told us that there’s gonna come a time when you’ll smile before you cry,” Barnard said.
“At the beginning when he came in, Biden told us it didn’t feel real,” Barnard said. “And it doesn’t. It still doesn’t.”
In a short address outside the bowling alley, Biden told the community, “We know your hearts are broken, but we also know your spirits are strong.”
He said the way the community and state have come together “has been a marvel to the rest of the country.”
Biden arrived in a helicopter at Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport shortly before 3 p.m. after a flight from the nation’s capital that landed at Brunswick Executive Airport. As part of a line of at least 45 vehicles, the president rode in a limousine that traveled one exit on the Maine Turnpike before weaving through local roads to reach Schmenegees.
President Joe Biden lays a bouquet of flowers with his wife, Jill, Friday afternoon in front of Schemengees Bar & Grille on Lincoln Street in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
At the restaurant, the Bidens placed a wreath at a makeshift memorial outside and hugged Kathy Lebel, its owner. They stood quietly for a minute before the motorcade proceeded to Main Street and on to the bowling alley where the massacre began.
Along the route, there were knots of people watching the proceeding, sometimes snapping photographs with their cellphones.
At the bowling alley, Biden and other dignitaries spoke at a temporary stage erected for the occasion.
“Today is about remembrance,” said U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who said the shootings tore a hole in the community.
But, he said, “as we come together in respect” that hole will heal.
Gov. Janet Mills said the state is “enduring unfathomable pain — from the families of those tragically taken from us, to those who were injured, to all the people of Lewiston, to all the people of Maine.”
But, she said, “out of this darkness, there is light. There is hope.”
“I see it in the people of Lewiston – a people who are as resilient as they are kind. Who are as strong as they are compassionate,” Mills said.
“That hope – that love – is all around us today. It is in every blue heart in every window. It is in every ribbon tied on every telephone pole. It is in every thank-you card written by every volunteer. It is in every small act of kindness,” she said.
Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline speaks Friday afternoon at Just-In-Time Recreation in Lewiston. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
The governor said Mainers “take comfort and solace in knowing that the entire nation stands with Lewiston and with Maine.”
“We feel the warmth of your visit and the strength of your unwavering support for our state,” she said. “And we see love and hope in the future, as difficult as that may be.”
Mills said, “The road to healing will be long, but we will heal. Together.”
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, flashed an “I love you” symbol to the grieving deaf community, which lost four of its own at Schemengees.
“Stay strong,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree from Maine’s 1st Congressional District also spoke. Lewiston’s lawmaker, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, did not attend.
In a prepared statement, Golden said he appreciated Biden’s visit to his hometown because “it will mean so much to my constituents and neighbors that he is there on behalf of the entire nation to express deep sorrow and support for the families of the victims, for the wounded, and for all who are suffering the pain of this terrible shooting.”
Portland Press Herald Staff Writers Randy Billings and Grace Benninghoff contributed to this story.
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