The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Biden vows to fight racial inequality with economic agenda
WILMINGTON, Del. — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden promised Tuesday that his economic agenda would combat long-standing racial inequalities as he sought to draw another sharp contrast with President Donald Trump.
Biden said the Republican president is exacerbating social discord across the country, including by sending federal authorities into major cities under the pretense of addressing crime. And he said Trump has little interest in addressing the racism that Biden said has been laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic, which disproportionately claims people of color as its victims, or in an electionyear reckoning with police violence against Black men.
“He can’t turn the economy around. He’s determined to stoke division and chaos,“Biden said, speaking in a community center gymnasium in his hometown of Wilmington, Del. “It’s not good for the country, but Donald Trump doesn’t care. His campaign is failing and he’s looking for a lifeline.”
Biden countered with a litany of proposals to steer federal money and tax credits to small business and economic development programs for minorityowned firms and disadvantaged neighborhoods. Biden also said he’d encourage home ownership to help close wealth gaps among minority communities and push the nation’s banking system, including the Federal Reserve, to more directly address economic inequality. Many of his proposals — and the billions in federal spending needed to pay for it — had already been promised as part of previous, larger Biden plans to jump-start the economy when the coronavirus outbreak begins to recede. But as protests against institutional racism and police brutality have swept the country in recent months, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is attempting to show voters that he’s committed to implementing specific remedies that can promote racial and economic equality should he win the White House in November.
Biden’s speech and his subsequent question-and-answer session with reporters - just his third extended news conference in four months - comes as he nears a decision on a running mate. Biden came prepared to talk about at least one of the top contenders: California Sen. Kamala Harris.
An Associated Press photographer captured Biden’s handwritten notes with talking points on several issues. Topping the list was Harris.
A recent Politico story alleged that Biden’s longtime friend and vetting committee leader Chris Dodd, a former Democratic senator from Connecticut, had raised concerns about Harris going after Biden last June on the debate stage and showing “no remorse” in conversations with Biden’s campaign. On Biden’s notepad, he’d written below Harris’ name: “Do not hold grudges” and “Great respect for her.”