President Biden on Tuesday issued a forceful condemnation of the "hateful and perverse ideology" that he warned has seeped into the mainstream, calling the white supremacist views espoused by the suspected gunman who killed 10 people and wounded three more in a racially motivated massacre in Buffalo, New York, a "poison." 

In remarks to elected officials, first responders and the victims' families, Mr. Biden said the nation must not remain silent in the face of racist conspiracy theories, as doing so is "complicity."

"What happened here is simple and straightforward: terrorism. Terrorism. Domestic terrorism," Mr. Biden said. "Violence inflicted in the service of hate and the vicious thirst for power that defines one group of people being inherently inferior to any other group. The hate that through the media and politics, the internet, has radicalized angry, alienated, lost and isolated individuals into falsely believing that they will be 'replaced' — that's the word, replaced — by the other, by people who don't look like them and who are therefore, in the perverse ideology that they possess and being fed, lesser beings."

The president, joined on stage by first lady Dr. Jill Biden, called on Americans to "reject the lie."

"I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain and for profit," he said.