Biden calls for rioters to face prosecution
Democratic nominee calls for US rioters and looters to be prosecuted as he hits back at claim he is ‘weak’
Joe Biden yesterday called for rioters and looters to be prosecuted, decrying their behaviour as “lawlessness”. Mr Biden, under pressure from Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he is weak on “law and order”, drew a distinction between peaceful protests and those resorting to violence.
JOE BIDEN yesterday called for rioters and looters to be prosecuted, decrying their behaviour as “lawlessness” in his strongest condemnation yet of the campaign of violence seen in some US cities this year.
The Democratic presidential nominee, under pressure from Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he is weak on “law and order”, drew a distinction between peaceful antiracism protests and those resorting to violence.
“We must not burn, we have to build,” Mr Biden said, accusing the American president of inflaming tensions and attempting to exploit clashes between demonstrators and police for his electoral advantage.
Mr Biden also used his speech to tackle head-on Mr Trump’s assertion that he is better placed to protect Americans, asking: “Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?”
The push back, delivered through a speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, comes a week after speakers at the Republican convention repeatedly accused Mr Biden of being too “weak” to keep America’s cities safe.
It came amid the backdrop of violent clashes in Kenosha, Wisconsin, between protesters, Right-wing militias and police after a white officer shot Jacob Blake, an African-american man, seven times in the back.
Mr Biden’s decision to deliver a message of condemnation indicates that, amid tightening polls, there is a concern in his campaign that Mr Trump’s message could have political potency as the race for the presidency approaches its last two months.
Mr Biden said: “Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple, and those that do it should be prosecuted.
“Violence will not bring change, it will only bring destruction. It’s wrong in every way. It divides instead of unites. It destroys businesses and only hurts the working families that serve the community. It makes things worse across the board, not better. No, it’s not what Dr [Martin Luther] King or John Lewis taught and it must end. Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames rather than avoiding the flames. But we must not burn. We have to build.”
Later, Mr Biden rebutted the claim he is a fringe politician with extreme views, asking: “Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?” He claimed Mr Trump was only going after the issue so hard out of political expediency, saying the president “looks at this violence and sees a political lifeline” and is focused on law and order to “save his campaign”.
Mr Trump has spent recent days leaning in hard on the issue after there were deaths in clashes between protrump supporters and demonstrators in both Portland, Oregon and Kenosha in the last week.
On Twitter the president retweeted a video of a black man pushing a white woman on the New York subway, criticised the “weak and pathetic” Portland mayor and demanded “LAW & ORDER!!!”.
Mr Trump is expected to make his own comments about the issue today when he travels to Kenosha to see first hand the buildings that have been
‘Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames rather than avoiding the flames’
‘He’s blaming the police far more than he’s blaming the rioters, anarchists, agitators, and looters’
burned down and talks to law enforcement figures.
The White House said he was not, as of yesterday, expected to meet the family of Mr Blake, the man shot in the back by police.
Mr Biden talked to Mr Blake’s relatives last week.
Mr Trump yesterday wrote on Twitter: “Just watched what Biden had to say. To me, he’s blaming the police far more than he’s blaming the rioters, anarchists, agitators, and looters, which he could never blame or he would lose the radical Left Bernie supports!”
Trackers of betting odds for the presidential race show that bookmakers now think there are roughly similar chances of Mr Biden or Mr Trump winning the Nov 3 election, a marked change from a month ago when Mr Biden was much more favoured.
The first commercial flight from Israel to the UAE is an extraordinary symbol of the rapprochement between those two countries. Not so long ago such a journey would have seemed unthinkable, yet the UAE’S announcement last month that it would become only the third Middle Eastern country to normalise relations with Israel has been relatively underplayed in some quarters.
The full impact of the agreement will only be clear in time, but an Arab nation recognising Israel’s right to exist is unarguably a significant diplomatic achievement. That yesterday’s historic flight passed through Saudi Arabian airspace, typically restricted for Israeli aircraft, is another small sign that further steps towards friendlier relations in the region may be in the offing. So why the muted reaction? One clue lies in the list of the flight’s passengers. Among the delegation of US and Israeli diplomats was Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser. The Israeluae deal is very much Mr Trump’s achievement and a key part of the president’s strategy to unite countries in the region around their shared opposition to Iran. That this strategy is bearing fruit is an uncomfortable truth both for those who, bizarrely, see Israel as the root cause of regional unrest and for anti-trump partisans, in the US and around the world, who cannot bring themselves to give credit where credit is due.
Making this observation is not about massaging the president’s already sizeable ego. It is about ensuring a facts-based debate about foreign affairs is possible. The cause of peace was not advanced by credulous liberals awarding Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize in the first year of his presidency. It will not be furthered now by seeking to ignore or downplay the achievements of his successor.