The former Vice President condemned the President for his confrontational response.
In a speech delivered in Philadelphia on Tuesday morning, former Vice President and Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Bidan spoke out against President Donald Trump for his handling of the George Floyd protests, both locally and across the country. Biden made a particular note of Trump’s actions on Monday, when Trump left the White House to visit St. John’s Church for a photo opportunity. In order to clear away protesters from Trump’s path across Lafayette Square, rubber bullets and tear gas were employed.
“When peaceful protesters are dispersed by the order of the president from the doorstep of the people’s house, the White House — using tear gas and flash grenades — in order to stage a photo op at a noble church, we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle,” Biden said.
Prior to this excursion, Trump made a public statement chastising state governors for their response to the protests, threatening to deploy the US military to cities and states with higher concentrations of conflict. In response to this, Biden said that Trump is “more interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of the people in his care. For that’s what the presidency is: a duty of care — to all of us, not just our voters, not just our donors, but all of us.”
Biden has repeatedly framed his campaign as a moral imperative for the country. “The presidency is a big job. Nobody will get everything right. And I won’t either,” Biden said. “But I promise you this. I won’t traffic in fear and division. I won’t fan the flames of hate.”
On Monday, Biden met with African American faith leaders in Wilmington, Delaware at his first in-person campaign event since the pandemic escalated in March. Guests to this event asked Biden what he planned to do to aid black Americans economically and politically, to which Biden responded that racial inequities would be one of the first priorities for his agenda.
