Jamie Dimon, Larry Fink among Wall Street leaders calling for unity following attempted Trump assassination

Some of the biggest names on Wall Street urged unity and calm following Saturday's assassination attempt on Donald Trump, using new memos to employees and conference calls with analysts to condemn the violence and call for civil discourse.

"I truly hope this is a moment that will spur reflection and action that celebrates what unites us as citizens and as a society," Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said Monday morning as he led off his firm's quarterly earnings call.

Solomon was joined by CEOs from JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), BlackRock (BLK), and Bank of America (BAC).

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon weighed in over the weekend in a memo to his employees after his bank, the largest in the US, reported its earnings on Friday.

"We are deeply saddened by the political violence and the assassination attempt on former President Trump last evening," he wrote on Sunday morning in a memo shared with Yahoo Finance. "It is only through constructive dialogue that we can tackle our nation's toughest challenges."

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan also penned a letter to his employees over the weekend, saying, "Any form of violence in action or speech has no place in political discourse or engagement" and adding, "This is the longstanding position of our company."

In her own letter Monday morning, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser wrote to her employees that "I hope these events will cause everyone to think about the words we use and tone down the rhetoric so we can have a more civil discourse."

"There is so much riding on it," she added.

One firm with an inadvertent connection to the shooter

Another call for calm came from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who said, "We must condemn political violence of any kind, period" during his own firm's quarterly earnings call Monday morning.

While the vast majority of the call was devoted to the firm's results, Fink began and ended that call with allusions to the political climate.

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, also confronted an inadvertent connection to the shooter when it surfaced online that an old BlackRock ad focused on a Pennsylvania teacher had briefly shown then-student Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Crooks is the 20-year-old who the FBI has identified as the alleged shooter who wounded Trump and was then quickly killed by Secret Service agents.

In a statement over the weekend, BlackRock confirmed that the footage was authentic and underlined that Crooks, who was briefly shown sitting at a desk and never speaks in the video, was unpaid.

"We will make all video footage available to the appropriate authorities, and we have removed the video from circulation out of respect for the victims," the statement added.

Will the calls be heeded?

The wave of financial commentary mirrored a business world outpouring over the weekend from many CEOs, including many in the technology sector.

"I pray for President Trump's rapid recovery," wrote Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook in just one example, adding, "I strongly condemn this violence."

What remains to be seen if the calls for calm coming from business and world leaders will be heeded. There are signs that US political leaders in both parties are going to at least try to tone down the rhetoric.

"The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated," Joe Biden said in an address to the nation Sunday night. "It's time to cool it down."

And Donald Trump, who saw the bullet pass inches from his skull and injure his ear as he began his speech in Pennsylvania, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that he'd changed his convention speech in order to help "bring the country together."

"UNITE AMERICA!" he added on social media.

But the aftermath has already been marked by heated — and many say irresponsible — rhetoric from partisans on both sides. Some either looked to downplay the violence or even claimed it was staged with no evidence.

Also, in the case of some Republicans, some tried to blame President Biden for the actions of Thomas Crooks.

Biden's "rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination" read one highly criticized missive from Sen. J.D. Vance, who is a finalist to become Trump's vice presidential nominee this week.

Trump is already in Milwaukee preparing for this week's Republican National Convention and is expected to make an appearance this evening when proceedings get underway.

David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance. Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

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