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JOE BIDEN WILL visit Kenosha, Wisconsin today to help “heal” the city shaken by racially charged unrest and show President Donald Trump that he is re-entering the campaign arena after months of coronavirus-related caution.
It comes after Biden announced he raised a staggering $364.5 million (€308 million) in August – in what his campaign called “the best month of online fundraising in American political history.”
The Democratic presidential challenger will visit Kenosha two days after Trump’s controversial trip there, and is expected to offer a contrasting vision to the president’s law-and-order message.
He will also meet with the family of Jacob Blake, the African-American man who was shot in the back by a white police officer on 23 August triggering days of angry protests.
“We’ve got to heal,” the former vice president told reporters in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware yesterday as he outlined plans for the trip.
“We’ve got to put things together. Bring people together. And so my purpose in going will be to do just that, to be a positive influence on what’s going on.”
Wisconsin is expected to play a crucial role in the November 3 presidential election.
Trump narrowly won the state in 2016, and the Republican president visited Kenosha on Tuesday – against the wishes of the Democratic mayor and state governor, who feared his presence would stoke tensions.
Asked whether his visit likewise risked inflaming the situation, Biden said he had spoken to local leaders and “there’s been overwhelming requests that I do come.”
Demonstrations in Kenosha began peacefully the night Blake was shot, but devolved into violence for several nights running.
It culminated 25 August when two people were shot dead. A 17-year-old white Trump supporter has been arrested and charged with murder.
The president has refused to condemn the growing presence of armed vigilantes at protests or the killings, and during his visit he equated the demonstrations demanding racial justice with “domestic terror” by violent mobs.
He did not meet with the family of Blake, who survived but may be paralyzed for life – or say the 29-year-old’s name publicly during the visit.
‘Nothing but failure and delusions’
Trump has charged Biden with tolerating the violence, forcing the Democrat to issue a condemnation during a speech in Pittsburgh Monday, the first city he had flown to in months after the coronavirus pandemic saw him stay at or close to home in Wilmington.
“Looting is not protesting, setting fires is not protesting,” Biden said, accusing Trump of having “fomented” violence.
Unlike his rival, Biden relentlessly denounces US institutional racism, and said he agreed with his running mate Kamala Harris that the officer who shot Blake should be charged.
Democratic Senator Chris Coons, speaking to AFP in Wilmington, said Biden will repeat his earlier message: that he has spoken with Blake’s family, rejects violence in all its forms, and “stands strongly for peaceful protest that is aimed at racial reconciliation and police reform.”
Biden leads Trump in national polling, but the gap is closer in must-win swing states like Wisconsin, which was to host the Democratic convention until it was forced online by the pandemic.
Until now Biden has hesitated to hit the trail, rigorously adhering to local health guidelines and campaigning through webcasts, advertising and television.
“I would like to get out more, but I think a president has the responsibility to set examples,” he said, by “not being a potential cauldron for significant outbreaks of Covid.”
Trump by contrast has maintained a relentless in-person campaign schedule including yesterday’s trip to North Carolina.
He even delivered his renomination acceptance speech last week before 1,500 guests packing the White House South Lawn, raising alarms about the potential to spread the virus.
Biden focused his criticism on Trump’s handling of the pandemic, as he said the challenge of getting millions of children safely back to school was a “national emergency” unsolved by the president.
“He’s offering nothing but failure and delusions from start to finish to American families and our children,” Biden said.
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Seems the only people we can trust in this country anymore to hold important jobs are foreigners. We should also hire one for the je HSE top job…..
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: I wouldn’t call it trust, but rather no Irish baggage, political or otherwise.
@Humphrey Harold Haddington: I would say this is more of a smoke screen. Strange there wasn’t one person in this entire country capable of the job. Or do some here think we Irish are just completely dishonest and untrustworthy.?
Joe Schmidt worked out pretty well.
Nothing wrong with another Kiwi running things here!
The only way to restoring trust is to employ an outsider ..perhaps we could get a few TD’S from abroad ALSO
Could we get a couple of hundred to run for Dail Eireann!!
Delighted to see its gone to a foreigner and not one of the lads mates! The fact it went to a Kiki is even better, recently when some bottom feeders went on a crime and anti social behaviour spree over there, the Mayor of Auckland called them The Mayor of described them as “a**holes” and “trash” Imagine what they would be called here, victims, “failed by society” etc, Joe Duffy and Miriam O’Callaghan would be fighting over who could interview them first, so they could regale us tax paying morons, with tales of the the awfully harsh (LOL) worldclass Irish welfare state here. Irish politicians make me sick, nobody responsible for everything, everyone is a victim etc! Pathetic! https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ahole-brit-tourists-kicked-out-13857689
@Shane Murphy: I was going to say I’m surprised that you’re happy it’s going to a foreigner given your right wing views elsewhere but then quickly realised that you’re using this article as an excuse to rant about other stuff that gets underneath your pr1ckly skin.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: That other stuff gets under a lot of people’s skin.
@Leadóg: indeed it does but the lad’s entire focus is irrelevant to the topic. Just that it happened in nz. Lord of the rings was filmed there but I’m not gona go waffling on about it as its irrelevant.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: are you aware of what bertie and co’s mate ,sorry regulator was responsible for during the boom ? New Zealand is far enough away , that even sleveemism probably hadn’t reached there. Hopefully varadkar does us all a favor and takes a long hike and casts himself into the fires of mount doom!
@Shane Murphy: you’re going off on a tangent again but yes, I’m well aware. Patrick Nevin sat on his hole and did sweet fa and then rode off into the sunset while we pay his pension.
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: we agree on this !
@Bruce van der Gutschmitzer: Is there no end to your homophilic bile?
@Josh Hanners: I actually had to go and Google homophilic. Turns out it’s a dated term for homosexual but lost its relevance after the 60s civil rights movements. You stuck in dark ages too buddy?
Sad day when we have to look to foreign countries to find an honest man!
@Josh Hanners: the sad day was years ago when we realized our lot couldn’t organize mass in the Vatican
@Mushy Peas: let alone an economy and state
@Josh Hanners: we need fine, honest, God fearing folk like yourself to run things Josh, mo chara.
Im delighted…
That none of civil service (RWatt etc) and Sharon….as they refused to answer questions posed by our elected officials..
Im not a FG head but well done Paschal.
If he shelves banker pay report ill vote FG
When debt is seen as a commodity then people will rise up but it will take a disaster to make that happen. Those in the financial trade learn nothing about consequences, only about going after short term profits at any cost. That is why crashes will keep on happening as well as how the ECB treats Central banks in Europe because the EURO isn’t their currency but is the ECB’s currency instead, no one has coped onto that yet?
have your say