Joe Biden Slams Trump, Calls for Addressing ‘Systemic Racism’
By Susan Milligan
U.S. News & World Report
June 2, 2020
Joe Biden blasted President Donald Trump as being "part of the problem" in flaming the flames of hate and national division, pledging in a major speech on race relations Tuesday to heal a wounded nation and address the enequities that have sprung from "systemic racism."
"It's a wake-up
call for our nation. For all of us,' the Democratic presidential
nominee said in Philadelphia, the day after Trump walked through a park
cleared of protesters by tear gas and rubber bullets to raise a bible
for a photo op after pledging to use the U.S. military to thwart
demonstrations across the nation.
"When
peaceful protestors 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 — a photo op! — in one of
the most historic churches in the country, or at least Washington, D.C.
– we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more
interested in power than in principle," Biden said.
"The president
held up the bible at St. John's church yesterday. I just wish he opened
it once in a while instead of raising it," the former vice president
added tartly. "If he opened it, he might have learned something."
Biden's remarks came nearly 12 years after his former boss, President Barack Obama,
made a seminal speech on race relations and the mixed feelings the
nation was experiencing in considering whether to elect the country's
first African American commander-in-chief.
But
while Obama was seeking to reassure voters that he would not be a
radical president interested in pitting whites and blacks against each
other, Biden had a different mission: pledging to calm a nation that
still, more than 150 years after the abolition of slavery and a dozen
years after Obama was elected, is mired in racial tension and rage over
the death of an African American man, George Floyd, who died after a
white police officer in Minneapolis pressed his knee to Floyd's neck,
ignoring his pleas that he could not breathe.
Biden called out Trump for his "self-absorption" and "selfishness," saying the president has "turned this country into a battlefield riven by old resentments and fresh fears. He thinks division helps him. His narcissism has become more important than the nation's well being. … Is this where we want to be?"
Biden called out Trump for his "self-absorption" and "selfishness," saying the president has "turned this country into a battlefield riven by old resentments and fresh fears. He thinks division helps him. His narcissism has become more important than the nation's well being. … Is this where we want to be?"
"I promise you
this – I won't traffic in fear and division. I won't fan the flames of
hate. I'll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued our
country, not use them for political gain …. I'll take responsibility,
not blame others," Biden said.
Biden's
address occurred at a historically stressful and painful time for the
country. As protests continue around the country – sometimes with
looting, violent confrontations with police and arrests of credentialed
journalists trying to cover the events – Americans are also grappling
with the global coronavirus pandemic.
Tuesday
is primary election day in Pennsylvania, and normally would be a moment
of glory for Biden, a Scranton native close to formally sewing up the
Democratic nomination. Instead, voters had to contend with not only
civil unrest – which has Philadelphia under an evening curfew – but
worries about contracting a potentially deadly illness.
Biden
also called for police reforms, including a national ban on "choke
holds" to disable a suspect. It was a sign of how far, and how quickly,
the issue has moved.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, in 2015 said he would veto a bill banning the tactics. Last weekend, he said he would sign such a bill as long as it allowed police to use it in a "life or death situation."
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, in 2015 said he would veto a bill banning the tactics. Last weekend, he said he would sign such a bill as long as it allowed police to use it in a "life or death situation."
"It's going to
take more than talk," Biden said in Philadelphia, where protests and
looting had been occurring nightly. "We've had protests before. We've
got to now make this an era of action."
Nor
should Americans have to wait until he is elected, Biden said. "If
(Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell can bring in the Senate to
confirm Trump's unqualified judicial nominees, who will run rough-shot
over our Constitution now, it's time to pass legislation that will give
true meaning to our Constitutional promise of Equal Protection under the
law," he said.
The address was
an important one for the former vice president, who needs to mobilize
the progressive wing of the party but who has been forced to run a
virtual campaign, making it harder for him to get media coverage during
the pandemic. Tuesday's appearance marked the fourth time in eight days
that Biden has ventured outside to meet with voters or community
leaders.
Biden's
relationship with African Americans has been strong but nuanced. The
fact that Biden was eager to serve as second-in-command to the nation's
first African American president has elevated him among many in the
community.
Overwhelming
support from African American voters in the February South Carolina
primary turned his then-flagging campaign around and started the surge
that made him the presumptive Democratic nominee. He has met with
African American leaders – most recently, at a church in his home town
of Delaware –
and has a plan, "Lift Every Voice," meant to improve economic, health, educational and criminal justice conditions for African Americans.
and has a plan, "Lift Every Voice," meant to improve economic, health, educational and criminal justice conditions for African Americans.
Yet there is
also a sense that Biden is not his former boss, Barack Obama, and many
black voters, especially young activists, are looking for more. As a
septuagenarian white man who bested several African American primary
foes for the presumptive nomination, Biden is under heavy pressure to
select an African American woman as his running-mate.
Asked
directly last week if he would select a black woman, Biden told MSNBC
that he had already committed to selecting an African American female as
his first Supreme Court selection. Biden committed in February to
picking a woman as his running mate, and says he has more than one
African American woman on his list of contenders. But he has declined to
commit to an African American, saying that race cannot be the only
consideration.
Biden
continues to vastly out-poll Trump among African Americans; a
CBS/YouGov poll released Tuesday morning showed Biden with the support
of 83% of black voters, compared to 6% for Trump.
But
activists say Biden needs to do more than be the alternative to a
president widely disliked by African Americans. Lower turnout among
black voters in Michigan, for example, was part of the reason Democratic
nominee Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the state to Trump in 2016.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Biden is a Texas blivot - 20-pounds of shit in a 10-pound bag.
