Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden Thursday slammed claims being made by President Donald Trump and his campaign that Americans won't be safe under him as president, accusing him of "pouring gasoline on the fire" as racial unrest continues to grow more violent in the nation's cities.
"The problem we have right now is we're in Donald Trump's America," Biden told MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports." "He views this as a political benefit for him. He's rooting for more violence, not less, and he's clear about that. What's he doing? He's pouring gasoline on the fire."
Biden made his comments while pointing to Trump's outgoing counselor Kellyanne Conway, who told Fox News earlier Thursday that "the more chaos and anarchy and violence reign, the better it is for who is the clear choice on public safety and law and order."
"They're looking for more violence and more destruction because it helps them politically," said Biden. "When has a president or a spokesperson for a president ever said something like that, ever? This is the same guy when people came out of Charlottesville and a young woman gets killed, they're spewing hate, their veins bulging, carrying swastikas, he says they're very fine people on both sides. He just keeps pouring fuel on the fire. He's encouraging this. He's not diminishing it at all. This is his America now. If we want to end this, we've got to end his tenure as president."
Biden also said that under Trump, COVID-19 is "out of control" because he was not prepared for it, "hasn't responded to it, and he continues to do nothing to deal with it."
But during this week's Republican National Convention, "they didn't speak about COVID and they didn't speak about any of the reasons why what's happening in Kenosha is happening."
Biden added that he condemns violence in any form, but he does believe people have the right to be angry over what his happening in the nation's cities where police shootings are involved. He also pointed out that the mother of police shooting victim Jacob Blake condemns the violence that has happened after he was shot in the back, so "who is rooting for the violence here?"
"I don't have enough detail to make a final judgment, it looks like some militia folks were there, a young man who shot two people," said Biden, referring to 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who has been charged with homicide after shooting two protesters.
"Where's the condemnation coming from that?" said Biden. "So look, if you want to talk about safety, the biggest safety issue is all the people dying from COVID. Over a thousand yesterday again. It's 1,000 people a day. We're worse on than any other country in the world right now."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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