Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is expected to issue an address Monday on the ongoing riots and violence in several major cities, but he is planning to connect the unrest to President Donald Trump rather than to leftist agitators who have been captured on camera and appear in arrest records, according to a report from The New York Times.
Biden, the Times says, will give the speech from an “undisclosed location” — likely either Minneapolis, Minnesota, or Kenosha, Wisconsin — to “condemn violence, and to note that chaos has unfolded” under President Donald Trump.
“Mr. Biden, who has been a firm supporter of peaceful protests, is expected to travel on Monday to condemn violence and to note that chaos has unfolded on Mr. Trump’s watch, according to someone familiar with his plans,” The New York Times said Sunday. “He is also expected to charge more broadly that the president is seeking to change the subject from the coronavirus and economic challenges the country faces. Details of his Monday plans weren’t immediately clear.”
Democrats and progressive activists have been adamant that the recent unrest in places like Kenosha, Minneapolis, and Portland, Oregon, has happened on President Trump’s watch — a sentiment that seems to suggests they believe Trump should take more active measures to contain the violence.
The excuse also seems to defy video evidence, which largely shows left-leaning activist groups targeting conservatives. On Thursday, footage emerged of protesters in Washington, D.C., harassing Trump supporters leaving the president’s Republican nomination acceptance speech. As The Daily Wire reported earlier Sunday, a Trump supporter appears to have been targeted and killed by suspected anarchists in Portland, Oregon, overnight.
In a speech to the National Guard Association of the United States over the weekend, Biden made his first effort at pinning unrest on Trump, claiming that Trump was dispatching the military and encouraging the deployment of National Guard troops to act out personal vendettas.
“I promise you, as president, I’ll never put you in the middle of politics, or personal vendettas,” Biden told the group. “I’ll never use the military as a prop or as a private militia to violate rights of fellow citizens. That’s not law and order. You don’t deserve that.”
The National Guard was called to duty in Kenosha after nights of unrest, following an officer-involved shooting that left Jacob Blake, a black man, in critical condition, at the request of the Wisconsin governor, not President Trump.
Biden has not yet commented on last week’s violence, and Democrats are reportedly beginning to fear that riots and unrest are having an impact on the Democratic nominee’s chances of prevailing in November. Axios reported last week that “Democrats close to Joe Biden increasingly fear the looting and violence in cities could help President Trump, especially among the few undecided or wavering Americans” — a sentiment that seems to be borne out by recent polling.