Michelle and I grieve with the families in Uvalde, who are experiencing pain no one should have to bear.

This weekend’s shootings in Buffalo offer a tragic reminder of the price we pay for refusing to curb the easy access to guns. It should also serve as a wakeup call for all Americans of goodwill, regardless of party.

We need to repudiate in the strongest terms the politicians and media figures who — whether for political gain or to boost ratings — have used their platforms to promote and normalize “replacement theory” and other starkly racist, anti-Semitic, and nativist conspiracy theories.

It’s despicable, it’s dangerous — and it needs to stop.

Across the country, parents are putting their children to bed, reading stories, singing lullabies—and in the back of their minds, they’re worried about what might happen tomorrow after they drop their kids off at school, or take them to a grocery store or any other public space.

We’re also angry for them. Nearly ten years after Sandy Hook—and ten days after Buffalo—our country is paralyzed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies.

It’s long past time for action, any kind of action. And it’s another tragedy—a quieter but no less tragic one—for families to wait another day.

May God bless the memory of the victims, and in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.

Jacob Philadelphia was five years old when he visited the Oval Office and asked if his hair was like mine. That photo became one of our favorites – a reminder of the power of seeing yourself in your leaders. Today, he's graduating from high school! Check out our recent reunion.