Candidate visits highlight Pa. as battleground in 2020 election
In Hazelwood speech, Biden says president has ‘ fomented’ fear, violence
In his first major speech since formally accepting his party’s presidential nomination, Democrat Joe Biden, speaking in Pittsburgh on Monday, accused President Donald Trump of building his re- election campaign on a foundation of fear, instigating the violence that has erupted on American streets in recent months and failing to protect the country in times of crisis.
Mr. Biden, delivering prepared remarks on Monday at Mill 19 in Hazelwood, questioned why anyone could possibly believe that a second Trump term would bring an end to the violence in U. S. cities or make anyone feel safer in America — when in reality and in the face of numerous coexisting crises, the president “sows chaos rather than providing order,” he said.
“The current president wants you to live in fear. He advertises himself as a figure of order,” Mr. Biden said. “He isn’t — and he’s not been part of the solution thus far. He’s part of the problem.”
Speaking to a country that has been submerged in waves of civic participation in response toseveral instances of police violence against Black people in recent months, Mr. Biden denounced violence on all sides of the issue — first citing “unwarranted police shootings” and “excessive force” by law enforcement.
“Seven bullets in the back of Jacob Blake. A knee on the neck of George Floyd. The killing of Breonna Taylor — in her own apartment,” Mr. Biden said, listing the high- profile incidents at the center of the nationwide protests.
The former vice president also condemned the “extremists and opportunists” who have taken their weapons to protests — the “right- wing militias, white supremacists [ and] vigilantes,” he said — hoping to “derail any hope and support for progress.”
But rioting and looting are violence, too, said Mr. Biden, who claimed they’re not forms of protest but of “lawlessness, plain and simple,” and worthy of prosecution.
“It is not what Dr. [ Martin Luther] King [ Jr.] or [ Rep.] John Lewis taught. It must end,” Mr. Biden said of the late civil rights leaders.
Violence, Mr. Biden said, “will not bring change,” but destroy businesses, hurt working families and divide the country.
Mr. Trump has “fomented” violence, Mr. Biden alleged.
“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 said.
The Democrat framed his own candidacy as a solution to the crises America faces, including COVID- 19 and its impact on the economy. It’ll start with getting rid of Mr. Trump, whose tenure he deemed a “toxin.” It’ll also mean not believing in the labels Republicans attach to him, he said.
“Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?” Mr. Biden asked. “I want a safe America. Safe from COVID. Safe from crime and looting. Safe from racially motivated violence. Safe from bad cops.”
Mr. Biden said if he were president, he’d bring police officers — most of whom are “good and decent people” — to the table with racial justice activists. A Biden presidency would result in a country that’s “safer,” he said.
“If I were president, my language would be less divisive,” Mr. Biden said. “I would be looking to lower the temperature in the country — not raise it. And I would be looking to unite the nation.”
Besides reposting a message poking fun at Mr. Biden’s syntax, Mr. Trump reacted to the speech on Twitter, alleging the former vice president is “blaming the Police far more than he’s
“Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really? I want a safe America. Safe from COVID. Safe from crime and looting. Safe from racially motivated violence. Safe from bad cops.”
— Joe Biden, Democratic presidential candidate
blaming the Rioters, Anarchists, Agitators, and Looters, which he could never blame or he would lose the Radical Left [ U. S. Sen. Bernie Sanders] supports!”
His campaign doubled down on that sentiment, claiming — in a statement from spokesman Tim Murtaugh — that Mr. Biden “failed to condemn the leftwing mobs burning, looting and terrorizing American cities” in his speech, one of many alleged omissions.
“In truth, if you listen to Biden, it’s almost impossible to tell where his campaign ends and Antifa begins,” Mr.
Murtaugh said. “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
Mr. Biden, however, did condemn rioting, looting and setting fires.
“None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple,” Mr. Biden said.
The Trump campaign also alleged — falsely — that Mr. Biden didn’t “urge Democrat mayors to allow the federal government to help” where violence is occurring. In his speech, Mr. Biden said he’d ensure mayors and governors have “the support they [ need] from the federal government,” but he
“wouldn’t be looking to use the United States military against our own people.”
The president’s re- election camp did rightly point out Mr. Biden did not specifically condemn Antifa or denounce his campaign staff for donating to a fund “which bailed violent criminals out of jail in Minneapolis.”
But in the case of the latter, staffers’ donations were to a Minnesota nonprofit that pays bail for low- income individuals — not all of whom could be labeled “rioters,” Politifact noted, but included curfew violators, working press and people who may have been detained during peaceful protests.
Beyond the argument of which candidate’s America will be safer after November’s election, Mr. Biden also waded into a politically volatile debate over his position on fracking, which has been the subject of TV advertising and political messaging in Pennsylvania since Mr. Biden emerged as a Democratic front- runner.
Mr. Biden said he has a “clean energy strategy that has a place for the energy workers right here in
Western Pennsylvania.”
“I’m not for banning fracking. Let’s say that again. I’m not for banning fracking — no matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me,” Mr. Biden said.
The Trump campaign and its surrogates — as well as affiliated committees — have attempted to warn Pennsylvanians a Biden presidency would effectively put an end to all fracking. One ad, from the America First PAC, claims Mr. Biden’s desired fracking policies would “kill up to 600,000 Pennsylvania jobs” — a claim the campaign disputes and is one of the reasons it’s asking TV stations to stop running the ad.
Mr. Biden’s proposal is to stop giving out new oil and gas permits on federal land, which wouldn’t apply to most fracking — which is done on private or stateowned land. His policy also would not impact fracking permits that already exist, his campaign counsel wrote in a letter recently.