Joe Biden Promises 'Era Of Action' To Battle Racial Inequality

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said Congress and local governments should pass police reform laws immediately.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday promised an “era of action” to battle racial inequality, including racism in the criminal justice system, and called for Congress and local governments to immediately move to reform police departments and tactics.

Biden also harshly criticized President Donald Trump for his inflammatory and frequently racist rhetoric following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, comparing the president to the worst villains of the civil rights era. Floyd’s death has led to days of protests across the country, during which police departments have often deployed tear gas and violence.

“Look, the presidency is a big job. Nobody will get everything right. And I won’t either,” Biden said from Philadelphia’s City Hall. It was his first time leaving his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, in months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“But I promise you this: I won’t traffic in fear and division,” he added. “I won’t fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country — not use them for political gain.”

The roughly 20-minute speech could provide something of a restart for Biden’s campaign, which has drawn limited attention following his victory in the Democratic primaries and the outbreak of the pandemic. Biden, who has a steady lead over Trump in most public polling, used the speech to appeal to both his base ― Black and older voters ― while using rhetoric and unveiling policy proposals that could encourage younger voters who remain skeptical of his candidacy.

He acknowledged that creating an equal justice system would take more than a single term in office, but said Congress should “immediately” pass “real police reform” ― including legislation to ban police chokeholds, legislation to improve oversight and accountability, a ban on transferring military weaponry to police departments and the creation of a uniform standard for when police officers can deploy force.

“Let us vow to make this, at last, an era of action to reverse systemic racism with long overdue and concrete changes,” Biden said. “No more excuses. No more delays.”

So far, Congress has taken little action in response to Floyd’s death and the resulting protests.

Biden also said “every police department in the country” should review its hiring and training processes, and reiterated his call for a national police oversight commission.

“More police officers meet the highest standards of their profession,” he said. “All the more reason why bad cops should be dealt with severely and swiftly.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden speaking in Philadelphia on Tuesday. He called for Congress and local governments to immediately move to reform police departments and tactics.
Former Vice President Joe Biden speaking in Philadelphia on Tuesday. He called for Congress and local governments to immediately move to reform police departments and tactics.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Biden called out the worst excesses of the protests and riots — saying there needed to be a distinction between “legitimate peaceful protest and opportunistic violent destruction” — but he focused more on the underlying causes of the unrest and on Trump’s response, specifically hammering the president for deploying tear gas on protesters to secure a photo-op on Monday night.

“When peaceful protesters 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 at a noble church, we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle,” Biden said.

The former vice president has relied on Black voters since the start of his presidential run last year, and his support from Black elected officials and older Black voters remains solid. But many younger Black voters remain skeptical of Biden, who has a history of racially insensitive remarks and has supported laws widely seen as increasing mass incarceration.

The Trump campaign has long sought to highlight those issues, hoping to dampen Black voters’ enthusiasm for Biden. Trump has a long history of racist statements and holds little appeal for the overwhelming majority of Black voters.

“Joe Biden’s campaign made it clear that they stand with the rioters, the people burning businesses in minority communities and causing mayhem, by donating to post bail for those arrested,” said Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign. “He has obviously made the crass political calculation that unrest in America is a benefit to his candidacy.”

Biden peppered the speech with references designed to strike a chord with baby boomers and older Americans: He invoked the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. as setbacks toward progress, and he compared Trump to Bull Connor, perhaps the most famous racist law enforcement official in U.S. history.

“American history isn’t a fairytale with a guaranteed happy ending. The battle for the soul of this nation has been a constant push and pull for more than 240 years.”

- former Vice President Joe Biden

At the same time, however, Biden framed these events in a way that went beyond his standard rhetoric portraying Trump as an aberration. Instead, he sounded more like his former boss, Barack Obama, who often portrayed American progress as the result of a constant push and pull.

“I wish I could say this hate began with Donald Trump and will end with him. It didn’t and it won’t,” Biden said. “American history isn’t a fairytale with a guaranteed happy ending. The battle for the soul of this nation has been a constant push and pull for more than 240 years. A tug of war between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh reality that racism has long torn us apart.”

“The honest truth is both elements are part of the American character,” he concluded.

This rhetorical shift could appeal more to younger voters and progressives who are sometimes skeptical of Biden and are more likely to see Trump as the culmination of a corrupt and failing American system that requires sweeping reform ― not just a problem that can be solved by a single election.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, who made police reform a top issue during his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, finally endorsed Biden on Tuesday, citing the former vice president’s recognition of “the urgent need for real reform to address our broken policing system.”

Biden also acknowledged the massive economic pain caused by the coronavirus with a call for “economic justice.” (The unemployment rate now officially stands at 14%, but is likely higher.)

“These last few months, we have seen America’s true heroes. The health care workers, the nurses, delivery truck drivers, grocery store workers,” he said. “But we need to do more than praise them. We need to pay them.”

Compared to his proposals on criminal justice reform, however, Biden had little new information to offer on economic policy. He merely repeated his standard call for the expansion of Obamacare. (In recent months, Biden has adopted some left-leaning economic policies he had avoided during the primary, including a plan to wipe out substantial amounts of student debt.)

The speech, which was carried live on several cable news channels, was Biden’s highest-profile public appearance in months. It’s unclear if the Biden campaign — or the news media — will view this as the beginning of a new and more active phase of his presidential bid.

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