'We need real leadership right now': Biden plays voice of reason in address on George Floyd killing

Joe Biden got a golden opportunity to make his pitch as a calm, rational alternative to President Trump, and he took it.

In a Friday address coming on the heels of looting and riots in Minnesota, Biden assumed the role of voice-of-reason while talking about the death of black man George Floyd by white police officers.

"This is no time for incendiary tweets," the former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said. "It's no time to encourage violence."

It was an indirect reference to a tweet from Trump that condemned the riots in Minneapolis, which prompted Twitter to hide the content due to breaking its rules about "glorifying violence": "When the looting starts, the shooting starts."

"This is a national crisis," Biden said in the Friday address. "We need real leadership right now. Leadership that will bring everyone to the table so we can take measures to root out systemic racism."

Biden said that he talked to the family members of George Floyd on Friday and said that they are a "close, decent honorable family, loving one another."

He turned his attention to the legacy of slavery and racism in the country.

"The original sin of your country still stains our nation today," Biden said. "Sometimes, we manage to overlook it. We just push forward with 1,000 other tasks in our daily life, but it's always there."

The message from Biden on Friday was a continuation of the one he launched his campaign with on April 2019: to "restore the soul" of America after Trump, pointing to the president's comment that there were "very fine people" of "both sides" of the Charlottesville, Virginia, "Unite the Right" protest that drew white supremacists and ended in the death of a liberal counterprotester.

"I believe it's the duty of every American to grapple with it and to grapple with it now. With our complacency, our silence, we are complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence," Biden said. "The very soul of America is at stake."