What it will take to calm America

On Sunday evening, President Joe Biden spoke from the Oval Office, calling on Americans to temper their passions. In the aftermath of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Biden reiterated his message that there is no room for violence in our politics and that everyone needs to take a breath and calm down. The nation needs to “lower the temperature,” he said. “No matter how strong our convictions,” Biden added, we must “never descend into violence.”

Will the message work? Coming at a pivotal moment in his own reelection campaign...