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Joe Biden breaks his isolation and puts his message of unity to the test in Kenosha

2020-09-03T19:09:45.179Z


The tension of the political moment that the United States is going through forces the Democratic candidate to change his plans with a trip to the last stage of the racial conflict


Candidate Joe Biden and his wife land in Wisconsin.ALEX WONG / AFP

The tension of the political moment that the United States is going through, two months before the presidential elections, has forced Democrat Joe Biden to change his plans, upset by the pandemic, and resume the campaign in person.

First stop: Kenosha, the city shaken by race riots that President Trump visited on Tuesday.

The trip this Thursday of Biden, who has met with the relatives of the latest victim of police violence, tests his ability to project himself, in contrast to Trump, as a leader capable of uniting a wounded country.

“I have always believed that we give our best when we act as one country.

It's time to come together, push our nation beyond this turbulent threshold, and build a better future for all, ”Biden tweeted shortly before landing in Wisconsin, one of the Midwestern states that may be decisive in November.

Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, have met privately with relatives of Jacob Blake, who remains hospitalized since a police officer shot him seven times in the back while trying to arrest him, leading to protests last week.

The candidate then plans to hold a meeting with businessmen, community leaders, and police.

The trip was designed to contrast with Trump's visit on Tuesday, who brought his message of law and order to the city of 100,000 people and dedicated himself to attacking Democrats, not even mentioning the latent race conflict, stirring up division as a weapon. politics.

"There are no acts of peaceful protest, but actually domestic terrorism," the president said after visiting businesses affected by the riots, in his strategy of seducing moderate voters by presenting Democrats as radicals who would allow chaos to take hold. of cities.

Trump did not meet with Blake's family.

Biden, boosted to victory in the Democratic primary by the African-American vote, has embraced the national conversation on systemic racism, in a summer of protests following the death of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis.

He has condemned violent acts in the riots, but has championed reforms in the police force to end disproportionate violence against people of color.

The clamor for racial justice was one of the arguments that weighed in electing Kamala Harris as the first black woman to run for vice president for one of the two major parties.

But his campaign has realized that a nuanced speech like Biden's, in the face of a president who bluntly repeats a blunt message, needs to be articulated over short distances.

The latest polls reflected a slight shortening of the distance that the Democrat takes to Trump, and there were many who in Biden's environment insisted that he should go to speak with voters in States where a few votes can make a difference.

It is in this area, that of short distances, where Biden performs best, and the refusal of Hillary Clinton to visit states like Wisconsin four years ago, a decision that contributed to Trump's victory, still weighs on the party.

Since the coronavirus pandemic tore into the campaign, Biden has barely strayed from Delaware, the state where he resides on the East Coast.

That's why Thursday's trip to the Midwest was also important.

Biden's environment trusts that Trump's refusal to condemn the violence of his followers (suggested that the 17-year-old accused of killing two people with an assault rifle acted in self-defense) and his inability to act like a president unifying force ends up having a negative effect on his reelection race.

Trips like this Thursday, the Democrats defend, will allow Biden to offer a counterpoint, and a message of hope before the possibility of closing the wounds of a country that faces colossal challenges.

The Trump campaign, for its part, has criticized Biden's visit to Kenosha.

"The president was there this week as president of the United States," Bill Stepien, director of Trump's campaign, defended on Fox News.

“This is not the time to inject politics into a really serious situation that the president helped resolve.

I think it points very clearly to the contrast between the president's leadership and the people in Biden's party who encourage violence in the streets. "

Trump travels to Pennsylvania on Thursday, another of the key states in the elections, where four years ago the Republican beat Hillary Clinton by less than one point.

A poll released Wednesday indicates that Biden is still eight points ahead of Trump in Wisconsin, but another shows that the president is closing the gap in Pennsylvania.

Trump is scheduled to deliver an evening speech at the Pittsburgh airport.

On Wednesday the president was in North Carolina, a state that he took in 2016 and where a recent poll today places both candidates in a virtual tie.

There, Trump again generated controversy, by inviting voters to vote two voices, one by mail and one in person, to test the effectiveness of the system.

An incitement to crime that the White House hastened to correct and that this Thursday, in a series of tweets, the president himself has tried to clarify.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-09-03

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