Biden Hits Trump’s Response To George Floyd Death: ‘No Time For Incendiary Tweets’
by Andrew SolenderTOPLINE
Former Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden addressed George Floyd’s death in a speech on Friday, criticizing President Trump’s response and calling on Americans to speak out and work towards lasting justice.
KEY FACTS
Biden kicked off the speech by saying he “just had an opportunity to speak with the Floyd family,” calling them a “close, decent, honorable family, loving one another.”
Biden described Floyd’s death as “so elemental, it did more than deny one more black man in America his human rights and his civil rights. It deprived him of his humanity, it deprived him of his life.”
“We are a country with an open wound,” Biden declared, calling on Americans to speak out about racism and police violence and not “fail victims with what Martin Luther King called the ‘appalling silence of good people.’ ”
Biden also hit at President Trump’s response to protests on Friday, in which he tweeted “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” saying, “this is no time for incendiary tweets. This is no time to encourage violence. This is a national crisis. We need real leadership right now.”
Biden also said it’s “time for us to take a hard look at the uncomfortable truths,” calling for police reform that “holds bad cops accountable and repairs relationships between law enforcement and the community they’re sworn to protect.”
“Nothing about this will be easy or comfortable, but if we simply allow this wound to scab over once more without treating the underlying injury, we’ll never truly heal,” Biden added.
Key background
Video of an incident on Monday in which a police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck for several minutes while Floyd shouted “I can’t breathe” sparked outcries of racism and police brutality across the country. Protests have taken place in cities across the country, with demonstrators storming the Ohio State Capitol and burning down several buildings including the third police precinct in Minneapolis.
Key Quote
“To George’s family, thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I promise we’ll do everything in our power to see to it that justice is had,” Biden said, concluding “folks, we gotta stand up, we gotta move, gotta change.”