Biden Castigates Trump for Fanning ‘Flames of Hate’ in Protests
Biden called on Congress not to wait until a new president is elected to address systemic racism and police brutality.
(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden castigated President Donald Trump on Tuesday for fanning “the flames of hate,” and called on Congress not to wait until a new president is elected to address systemic racism and police brutality as protests continue to sweep the nation.
Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, decried Trump’s leadership of a country beset by three crises -- the coronavirus pandemic, the recession and protests over racial inequities that have often turned violent.
“The country is crying out for leadership,” Biden said in his speech from Philadelphia City Hall. “Leadership that can unite us. Leadership that can bring us together. Leadership that can recognize the pain and deep grief of communities that have had a knee on their neck for too long.”
Biden scolded there should be “no more excuses, no delays” in addressing the racial inequalities underlying the protests convulsing the nation. He said Congress should pass a ban on police chokeholds, prevent military surplus equipment from flowing to police departments and improve oversight. If elected, he said he would set up a national police oversight commission in his first 100 days.
But the former vice president acknowledged reform would take time and refused to promise he could get it done in the traditional campaign yardstick of 100 days or even a full presidential term.
“I wish I could say this hate began with Donald Trump and will end with him,” he said. “It didn’t and it won’t. American history isn’t a fairytale with a guaranteed happy ending.”
Speech Follows Trump Church Walk
Biden’s address was carried live by cable news networks, making it his most high-profile opportunity to contrast his message and style with Trump’s since the pandemic put his campaign in lockdown mode.
Biden made his first public appearance in months on Memorial Day, when he laid a wreath at a memorial with his wife. On Monday, he held his first public event at a black church in Wilmington, where he listened to community leaders speak about racial injustice. The leaders, while supportive of his campaign, pressed him to deliver for black Americans if he is elected.
Biden’s speech came the morning after police dispersed peaceful protesters from Lafayette Park across the street form the White House with tear gas and rubber bullets so that Trump could walk out of the White House to stand in front of historic St. John’s Church for a photo.
“The president held up a bible at St. John’s Church yesterday,” Biden said. “I just wish he opened it once in a while. If he opened it instead of brandishing it, he could have learned something -- that we are all called to love one another as we love ourselves.”
Protests, some violent, have erupted coast to coast following the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, while in police custody. Floyd, whose death was captured on video, was telling police he couldn’t breathe as Officer Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with murder, knelt on his neck.
Biden said the words “I can’t breathe” are “echoing across the nation.”
“They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk,” he said.
Biden cut a stark contrast with Trump, who has threatened to send in the military to quell the protests and criticized the nation’s governors on a call Monday for not responding with enough force.
“We will not allow any president to quiet our voice,” he said. A “down payment” on that work, he said, must be made immediately.
Though Biden has kept up a regular -- but virtual -- campaign schedule over the past few months, he has struggled at times to break through. Thus, Tuesday’s nationally televised speech marked a turning point in Biden’s general election campaign as he seeks to reassure a nation on edge from economic and social unrest.
“I’ll do my job and take responsibility,” he said about his approach to the presidency. “I won’t blame others. I’ll never forget that the job isn’t about me. It’s about you. And I’ll work to not only rebuild this nation. But to build it better than it was.”
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