Biden poses contrast: ‘I won’t traffic in fear’
WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Joe Biden offered some of his harshest criticism of President Donald Trump for his handling of protests after George Floyd’s death, and Biden called on Congress to address systemic racism.
“It’s going to take the work of a generation,” Biden said at Philadelphia City Hall on Tuesday. “But if this agenda will take time to complete, it should not wait for the first 100 days of my administration to start.”
The Democratic presidential candidate’s remarks followed days of protests across the nation over the death of Floyd while in police custody. Trump condemned the protests, some of which have led to looting and rioting in several cities.
Biden said he will release a broader agenda to address racial inequities in coming weeks. His plan begins with health care, he said, and “the quickest route to universal coverage in this country is to expand Obamacare.”
“We could do it. We should do it,” Biden said. “But this president – even now, in the midst of a public health crisis with massive unemployment – wants to destroy it.”
Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said, “This president today is part of the problem and accelerates it . ... I wish I could say that hate began with Donald Trump and will end with him,” Biden continued. “It didn’t, and it won’t.”
Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign, said in a statement that Biden has “used the politics of racial division when they suited his needs, and he is doing it again.”
“In contrast, President Trump has addressed the nation twice, expressed horror and sorrow for the death of George Floyd, stood with the peaceful protesters and made it clear that he would not abide our cities being overtaken by violent, uncontrollable rioters,” Pierson said.
Biden attempted to contrast his messaging with Trump’s, saying, “I won’t traffic in fear and division. I won’t fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country, not use them for political gain.”
Biden, former vice president, also criticized Trump after authorities in Washington, D.C., used tear gas to clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square so that the president could pose in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House.
“The president held up a Bible,” Biden said. “I just wished he opened it once in awhile instead of brandishing it.”