Biden: Trump ignores pandemic, stokes unrest, solves neither
WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden is calling the struggle to reopen U.S. schools amid the coronavirus a “national emergency” and accusing President Donald Trump of turning his back to instead stoke passions about unrest in America' s cities.
The Democratic presidential nominee' s broad sides came a day ahead of his own trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Biden said he wants to help “heal” a city reeling from another police shooting of a Black man. The wounding of Jacob Blake and subsequent demonstrations have made the political battleground state a focal point for debate over police and protest violence, as well as the actions of vigilante militias.
Biden assailed Trump for his vilifying of protesters as well as his handling of the pandemic that has killed nearly 190,000 Americans and crippled the national economy, leaving millions out of work, schools straining to deal with students in classrooms or at home and parents struggling to keep up. An American president, Trump's challenger declared, should be able to lead through multiple crises at the same time.
“Where is the president? Why isn' t he working on this?,” Biden asked. “We need emergency support funding for our schools — and we need it now. Mr. President, that is your j ob. That's what you should be focused on — getting our kids back to school. Not whipping up fear and division — not inciting violence in our streets.”
Trump answered al most immediately with his own event in North Carolina, where he continued casting the protests generally as “violent mobs here at home” that must be met with a strong show of force. “These people know one thing: strength,” he said. If local leaders would ask for federal muscle, Trump said, “We'll have it done in one hour.”
The opposing events reflected the clear fault lines of the general election campaign. Each man casts the other as a threat to Americans' day-today security, but Trump uses “law and order” as his rallying cry while Biden pushes a broad referendum on Trump's competence and thinking.
Bid en said Wednesday that he'd use existing federal disaster law to direct funding to schools to help them reopen safely, and he urged Trump to “get off Twitter” and “negotiate a deal” with Congress on more pandemic aid. He repeated his assertions that a full economic recovery isn't possible with COVID-19 still raging, and that reopening schools safely is a necessary part of both limiting the virus' spread and allowing parents to return to work.
Addressing the ongoing unrest over racial injustice and policing, Biden told reporters he believes the Kenosha officer who shot Blake “needs to be charged .” Bid en also called for charges in the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed in her Louisville, Kentucky, home by police in March.
Biden also called for legal action on citizens who've committed violence as part of civil unrest, a direct answer to Trump's continued assertions that Biden backs violent protests.
The former vice p re sident said he plans to meet in Kenosha with civic and business leaders and law enforcement. He's already been in contact with Blake's family. Blake remains hospitalized after he was shot seven times in the back by police as he was trying to get into a car while police were trying to arrest him.
“We've got to put things together, bring people together,” Biden said, adding that he was“not going to tell Kenosha what they have to do” but instead would encourage citizens to “talk about what has to be done.”