During a visit to Kenosha, Wis., on Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden said President Trumps rhetoric surrounding violent protests legitimizes the dark side of human nature.
The words of a president matter, no matter if theyre good, bad or indifferent. They matter, Biden said during a community meeting at Grace Lutheran Church before recounting his own experiences with racism in America over the decades since he received his law degree from Syracuse University in 1968.
Recounting Trumps equivocating response to the rally by white supremacists held in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017 legitimizes the dark side of human nature, Biden said, adding, It also exposed what had not been paid enough attention to: The underlying racism that is institutionalized in the United States still exists.
Before his appearance at the church, Biden and his wife, Jill, met with the family of Jacob Blake, a Black resident of Kenosha whose shooting by police sparked riots in the Midwestern city.
The family was grateful for the meeting and was very impressed that the Bidens were so engaged and willing to really listen, Ben Crump, the familys attorney, said in a statement following the meeting. Jacobs mother led them all in prayer for Jacobs recovery. They talked about changing the disparate treatment of minorities in police interactions.
Biden said he spoke on the telephone for 15 minutes with Jacob Blake, who he said was not going to give up, despite being left paralyzed after Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey shot him seven times in the back as Blake entered his car. Biden has called for the officer to be criminally charged in the case.
But reiterating his message that rioting is not protesting, the former vice president also made clear his opposition to violent protests like the ones that destroyed several businesses in Kenosha.
Regardless of how angry you are, if you loot or you burn you ought to be held accountable, Biden said. Period. It just cannot be tolerated, across the board.
Yet Trump, who did not meet or speak with Blake or his family when he traveled to Kenosha on Tuesday, continued to paint Biden as too weak when it comes to putting down violent protests.
Americans didnt hear any denunciation of Antifa or any other left-wing agitators who have rioted in American cities from coast to coast, Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaigns communications director, said in a written statement. He said nothing about Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers acceptance of federal assistance from President Trump to quell the riots and did not explain that he opposed calling in the National Guard to protect Americans from violent left-wing rioters. Joe Biden made this above-ground excursion from his basement for purely political reasons and it shows.
Biden met with local residents, including a firefighter, a small-business owner and an attorney, getting their views on what the city had been through and the events that sparked the riots last week.
A young African-American woman named Porsche Bennett delivered an impassioned speech inside the church.
Im just going to be honest, Mr. Biden, I was told to go off this paper, but I cant. You need the truth and Im part of the truth. I was born here, raised here, Bennett said, adding, I have to give you the truth of the people, and the truth of the matter is we are heavily angry. Not angry as to where people will say, Oh, theyre protesting. Theres a difference between a protester and a rioter, a very big difference. We protest to get our voices heard. We protest to show that not just Blacks are tired of whats going on.
Bennet said the action the community wanted was to hold these officers accountable to the same crimes we get held accountable to. If I was that officer, I would be in Kenosha County Jail right now.
Biden made the case that Trumps presidency was standing in the way of attaining the kind of change that Bennet is looking for.
If I get elected, I promise you there will be a national commission on policing out of the White House where Ill bring everyone to the table, including police chiefs, including civil rights activists, including NAACP, including the Latino community, he said.
Trump, Biden said, talks in ways that are not only incorrect, but immoral and just simply wrong.
Biden decried the failure of American schools to teach students the history of the 1921 massacre of African-Americans in Tulsa, Okla., and that a Black man invented the light bulb, not a white guy named Edison.
Theres a lot of folks who thought that, well, the president has made great strides his law and order strides here. That, boy, after his convention he really made inroads, Biden said before leaning toward his audience and whispering, He hasnt, not at all. It should give you a little bit of confidence in the American people. They aint buying it.
Yet supporters of the president, like his son Donald Jr., attacked Biden for meeting with Blakes father, who they pointed out has a long history of posting bigoted views on social media.
Is Joe Biden still going to meet with this man?
Jacob Blake Sr. Has Long History of Racist, Antisemitic, Anti-Christian Posts; Set to Meet Joe Biden https://t.co/Tp607VTHXy
Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 3, 2020
In a 2017 post on Facebook, for instance, Blake Sr. wrote that Jewish people control both the interest rate and the media. Numerous other posts also took aim at Jews.
Biden did not address the issue of the older Blakes social media posts in public.
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In Kenosha, Biden says Trump’s rhetoric ‘legitimizes the dark side of human nature’
