The Washington Times reports that Joe Biden said today that President Trump is “rooting” for more violence on U.S. streets because he sees it as a political benefit. “He views this as a political benefit to him,” said Biden in an interview on MSNBC. “He’s rooting for more violence, not less, and is clear about that.”
What is Biden’s evidence? What did Trump say that makes this “clear”?
Biden pointed to this statement by Kellyanne Conway:
I guess Mayor Pete [Buttigieg] knows full stop that the more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety and law and order.
But Conway’s comment, like Buttigieg’s, merely expresses reality, which is slowly dawning on the Democrats including, finally, even Slow Joe himself. It doesn’t express a wish for more violence. Nor is it a comment by Trump.
Biden also said that the Trump campaign is running footage of rioting and calling it Joe Biden’s America. At a minimum, it is the America of Democratic mayors and governors who tolerate the rioting. And Biden hasn’t criticized these mayor or governors.
But to say that Trump is rooting for rioting because he makes it a campaign issue is like saying that Biden is rooting for coronavirus deaths because he makes Trump’s response to the pandemic an issue. So far, to my knowledge, Republican candidates have had the decency not to make that claim.
“Decent Joe,” the man who says he will unite America, lacks their scruples.
I don’t know whether Biden secretly wants more coronavirus deaths and I don’t know whether Trump is secretly rooting for more violence. I’m not a mind reader, and Biden isn’t either.
To make either assertion “without evidence” — as the mainstream media likes to say whenever Trump makes a claim or even says that something might be the case — is sickening.
