Joe Biden accused President Donald Trump of “rooting for more violence” in cities where there are protests over police brutality and racism.
Biden made his statements about Trump in an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell before the official GOP presidential nomination of Trump on the last night of the Republican National Convention. Biden's remarks echoed some of the most heated criticisms yet against Trump’s management of the racial crisis the country faced since the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day.
“He views this as a political benefit to him,” Biden said when asked about protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake took place over the weekend.
“He’s rooting for more violence, not less,” Biden said.
Biden quoted Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway's statement in a Fox News interview: “the more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order.”
Meanwhile, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh gave a statement to CNBC, saying that Biden’s “desperation is showing” and that Trump has “repeatedly condemned the violence erupting in Democrat-led cities.”
“This is election is a choice between President Trump’s strong stance with law and order and Joe Biden’s acquiescence to the anti-police left and siding with rioters,” Murtaugh said.
“The problem we have now is, we’re in Donald Trump’s America,” Biden responded. He said that Trump has been “pouring gasoline on the fire.”
Meanwhile, Biden condemned the violence in Kenosha and expressed his frustration over the video of Blake’s shooting.
“You know, as I said after George Floyd’s murder, protesting brutality is a right and absolutely necessary. But burning down communities is not protest, it’s needless violence,” Biden said in a video.
Hope, unity
Biden's speech for his acceptance of the Democratic presidential nomination also contained criticisms against Trump as well as a message about hope and unity.
“What we know about this president is if he’s given four more years he will be what he’s been the last four years. A president who takes no responsibility, refuses to lead, blames others, cozies up to dictators, and fans the flames of hate and division. He will wake up every day believing the job is all about him. Never about you,” Biden said, referring to Trump.
Biden hoped history would “be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here tonight as love and hope and light joined in the battle for the soul of the nation.”
He called for hope and light and love, “hope for our futures, light to see our way forward, and love for one another.” He also stressed that the country is not just about the differing interests of “Red States or Blue States.”
“We can choose the path of becoming angrier, less hopeful, and more divided. A path of shadow and suspicion. Or we can choose a different path, and together, take this chance to heal, to be reborn, to unite. A path of hope and light,” he said.
Biden also expressed his gratitude to former President Barack Obama. “Thank you, Mr. President. You were a great president. A president our children could – and did – look up to.”
