Op-ed: Biden’s riot messaging gives Team Trump an opening
It’s pretty astonishing to watch the media sell Joe Biden as a bridge to racial reconciliation as violence rages across the nation after the death of George Floyd, the black Minneapolis man who died last week during an arrest.
Not so long ago, Sen. Kamala Harris, now apparently a front-runner to be Biden’s running mate, Sen. Cory Booker and others were excoriating Biden for having worked with segregationist senators early in his career, for advocating against forced busing as an integration tool and authoring the tough federal crime bill of 1994.
Nonetheless, here’s an example of where the presumptive Democratic nominee’s cheerleaders in the left-leaning national media will, like those Democrats who have backtracked on the “Biden-is-a-racist” claim, are more than willing to give him a pass for asinine comments.
In a meeting on Monday with leaders of a black church in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden talked about improving police training. At one point, the former vice president said, “Instead of standing there and teaching a cop, when there’s an unarmed person coming at them with a knife or something, you shoot them in the leg instead of in the heart is a very different thing. There’s a lot of different things that could change.”
Uh, say what? An “unarmed” person coming at cops “with a knife or something?” By definition, that’s not an unarmed person. Moreover, by most training manuals, cops would be permitted and excused for using deadly force if a dangerous suspect threatened them with a knife or any other weapon. And how exactly would training cops to shoot people in the leg, if not the heart, have affected a situation like that involving George Floyd, who was unarmed and died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly 10 minutes, cutting off his air supply?
Well, rest assured that President Donald Trump won’t let voters forget about how Biden has responded to these riots. It has already begun.
For instance, reports surfaced recently that at least 13 Biden campaign staffers donated to a legal fund to bail Minneapolis rioters out of jail. Somebody on Team Biden suddenly realized the impact of that news as they quickly canceled Biden’s appearance in Maine for the state Democratic Party.
After Biden criticized Trump’s appearance on Monday at historic St. Johns Episcopal Church in Washington as a “photo op,” Trump’s campaign fired back.
“Joe Biden’s campaign made it clear that they stand with the rioters, the people burning businesses in minority communities and causing mayhem, by donating to post bail for those arrested,” spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said in a statement on Tuesday.
“He has obviously made the crass political calculation that unrest in America is a benefit to his candidacy. Biden has a history of cozying up to notorious racists in the Senate, he attempted to inflame race relations by claiming Republicans want to put Black Americans ‘back in chains,’ and told a Black radio host that Blacks who didn’t support him ‘ain’t Black.’ He topped that off today by repeating the erroneous claim that protestors in Lafayette Park were tear gassed last night to clear a path for President Trump when the Park Police says they used no tear gas and were not aware that the President was coming through.”
Continuing, Pierson said, “Over the course of his public life, Joe Biden has used the politics of racial division when they suited his needs and he is doing it again.”
Biden’s flirting with racial discord and divisiveness will continue, even as the media glosses over the long record Pearson spotlighted. But Trump will undoubtedly relish the idea of playing Wack-a-Joe every time Biden pops his head out of that basement.
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