Joe Biden accused Donald Trump of stoking violent unrest in US cities in a speech that lambasted the “lawlessness” of rioters and looters as he sought to neuter the President’s law-and-order message in the final stretch of the election campaign.
Mr Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate, delivered an address in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday, in which he accused Mr Trump of “multiplying” recent crises, including the coronavirus pandemic and the violence at anti-racism protests that erupted after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in late May.
Mr Biden’s remarks came after two protesters were shot dead in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last week, and a shooting in Portland, Oregon, over the weekend in which one person was killed amid clashes between Trump supporters, protesters and police. Mr Trump is set to visit Kenosha on Tuesday.
The former vice-president issued one of his most forceful condemnations of the violent unrest that has broken out in some US cities, describing it as senseless and calling for perpetrators to be punished.
“Rioting is not protesting, looting is not protesting, setting fires is not protesting . . . it’s lawlessness, plain and simple,” Mr Biden said. “Those who do it should be prosecuted.”
He added: “Violence will not bring change, only destruction. It’s wrong in every way. It divides instead of unites. It makes things worse across the board not better.
“Fires are burning, and we have a president who fanned the flames, rather than fighting the flames. We must not burn, we have to build.”
Mr Biden tried to counter a week of attacks on his candidacy at last week’s Republican convention, when the president and his party claimed that the country would succumb to “mob rule” if the Democrats win the election.
“This president long ago forfeited any moral leadership in this country,” Mr Biden said.
“He can’t stop the violence — because for years he has fomented it. He may believe mouthing the words law and order makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows you how weak he is.”
Mr Biden also accused Mr Trump of mishandling the pandemic, adding that the president was a leader “who sows chaos rather than providing order”.
Mr Trump has made stamping out unrest a central theme of his re-election campaign, as he tries to paint Mr Biden as soft on crime and convince voters that he can restore order to cities run chiefly by Democrats.
Mr Trump said on Monday morning he still intends to visit Kenosha despite calls from Tony Evers, the state’s Democratic governor, to cancel his trip, warning that the presence of the US president there could escalate the unrest. The Democratic mayor of Kenosha, John Antaramian, told NPR that he would prefer the president not to visit the city “at this point in time”.
In an appearance on Monday morning’s Fox & Friends on the Fox News channel, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Mr Trump did not intend to change his plans.
“This president will go to Kenosha, Wisconsin. He loves the people of Wisconsin and he looks forward to speaking directly to them and unifying the state,” Ms McEnany said.
She added that the administration had “not been able to connect yet” with the family of Jacob Blake, the black man who was paralysed after being shot multiple times by a police officer in Kenosha last week, which touched off the protests.
In tweets on Monday, Mr Trump said his actions had spared the small Midwest city from a higher death toll and accused local Democratic officials of having “lost control” of their own supporters.
He has also been highly critical of Ted Wheeler, the Democratic mayor of Portland, where protesters and law enforcement officers have been squaring off all summer in increasingly tense encounters.
“Portland is a mess, and it has been for many years. If this joke of a mayor doesn’t clean it up, we will go in and do it for them!” Mr Trump tweeted.
He added: “The Radical Left Mayors & Governors of Cities where this crazy violence is taking place have lost control of their “Movement”. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but the Anarchists & Agitators got carried away and don’t listen any more — even forced Slow Joe out of basement!”
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2RhZmNlNmRmLTQwYjMtNDI0NC04ODRhLTU5NDkyNGYwYmUwOdIBP2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2RhZmNlNmRmLTQwYjMtNDI0NC04ODRhLTU5NDkyNGYwYmUwOQ?oc=5
2020-08-31 15:44:00Z
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