SENILE JOE PROMISES HE WILL CURE THE NATION OF RACISM

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 fanning the flames of hate and national division, pledging in a major speech on race relations Tuesday to heal a wounded nation and address the inequities 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?"

 

"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."

"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.

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.