Faced with Donald Trump's rhetoric on "law and order", Joe Biden wants to pose as a candidate for "unity". The Democratic candidate for the White House accused the American president on Tuesday of having transformed the United States into "battlefield" by threatening to send the army to "subdue" the demonstrations provoked by the death of George Floyd. In Philadelphia, Joe Biden has promised to do everything to "heal racial wounds" if he wins the presidential election in November.
" I can not breathe. The last words of George Floyd echo throughout America, "said Joe Biden. The death of this 46-year-old African American, asphyxiated by the knee of a police officer for almost 8 minutes, last week, in Minnesota, is an "electric shock for our country." For all of us, ”continued the former vice president of Barack Obama.
“I can't breathe.”
George Floyd's last words. But they didn't die with him. They're still being heard. They're echoing across this nation.
It's a wake-up call for all of us. pic.twitter.com/q6kARnpJqU
Trump "thinks division helps"
It was the first time since mid-March that Joe Biden, 77, ventured out of his state of Delaware, where he was confined because of the coronavirus pandemic. Filmed by passers-by, the homicide of George Floyd outraged the country and the world, and provoked demonstrations across the United States which sometimes degenerated into riots.
Joe Biden has repeatedly condemned the violence but on Tuesday accused Donald Trump, 73, of "transforming this country into a battlefield divided by old resentments and new fears". "He thinks the division is helping him" to win the presidential election on November 3, said the Democrat, who is ahead of him in the polls.
Joe Biden denounced the dispersal on Monday evening of "peaceful demonstrators" with "tear gas and stun grenades" to allow Donald Trump to carry out a "communication operation" by going to a church near the White House, a bible by hand. Donald Trump "better read the Bible rather than brandish it," Biden quipped.
"Tackling institutional racism"
Seeing these scenes, “we have the right to think that the president is more concerned with power than with principles. That he is more interested in serving the passions of his base than the needs of those he is supposed to care for, "he said. “We cannot be naive. I wish I could say that the hatred started with Donald Trump and will go away with him. This is not the case. And it won't happen. American history is not a fairy tale with a guaranteed happy ending, ”admitted the Democrat.
Seeking to stand in stark contrast to the Republican billionaire, he made a promise to American voters: "I will not manipulate fear and division." I will not stir up the embers of hatred. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have been plaguing our country for so long, not to use them for political gain. ”
"The time has come for our country to tackle institutional racism," he added, urging Congress to act this month, "starting with real police reform." If the vast majority of parliamentarians denounced the death of George Floyd, such rapid action seems difficult in a deeply divided Congress, between the House of Representatives led by the Democrats and a Republican Senate.
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- Police violence
- Racism
- American presidential election
- Donald trump
- Joe biden
- World
- Minneapolis