WILMINGTON | Two days after Donald Trump’s visit, Joe Biden will try to mark the contrast with his presidential rival by meeting Thursday in Kenosha with the family of Jacob Blake, injured by the police in a case which sparked a new wave of indignation against racism, and riots.
• Read also: Trump arrives in Kenosha, tensions between protesters
It is ostensibly to “heal the wounds” of this city of Wisconsin, a key state for the presidential election of November 3, that the former vice-president of Barack Obama will make this rare trip.
But the signal is obvious: After months of extreme caution over the pandemic, the veteran of politics is finally stepping into the arena.
Joe Biden, 77, made his first official plane trip to Pittsburgh on Monday in another key state, Pennsylvania. And on Wednesday, he agreed to answer reporters’ questions for the first time in weeks, in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware.
His rival is increasing the number of trips to two months before the presidential election. It was Wednesday in another Wilmington, North Carolina. And Donald Trump, 74, regularly quipped about the lack of “energy” of Joe Biden, 77.
“I would love to go out more, but I think a president has a responsibility to lead by example” by respecting precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, Joe Biden said on Wednesday.
It was after consulting his medical experts that the former vice-president of Barack Obama therefore decided to go to Kenosha on Thursday.
A coastal town on Great Lake Michigan, it experienced nights of rioting last week after serious injuries by police to Jacob Blake, an African-American officer fired at seven times, in front of his children, during of an arrest filmed on August 23.
“Domestic terrorism”
These images reignited the historic wave of anger against racism and police brutality in the United States.
“We have to heal the wounds,” the Democrat said at a rare press conference, in front of only a few journalists held at bay in large circles painted on the ground due to the pandemic.
He will meet in Kenosha the relatives of Jacob Blake, hospitalized and paralyzed from the feet to the waist, a member of his team confirmed to AFP.
Then his wife, Jill Biden, will make another stop with him in Wisconsin, which has not yet been specified.
Donald Trump had created a surprise in 2016 by narrowly winning this Midwestern state, where his rival Hillary Clinton had not campaigned. This time all eyes are on Wisconsin.
Well aware of its importance, the Democrats had chosen to organize their inauguration convention of Joe Biden this summer in his largest city, Milwaukee. But it was ultimately made entirely virtual because of the pandemic.
Hammering his campaign slogan, restore “law and order”, Donald Trump visited Kenosha on Tuesday.
The Republican inspected the ruins of burnt-out shops with traders, thanked the police and likened the violent demonstrations to “internal terrorism”. But he has not met those close to Jacob Blake, and has not mentioned his name.
The tension after his arraignment peaked on August 25, when a 17-year-old young man fired a semi-automatic rifle under unclear circumstances at three protesters, killing two. His arrest the next day brought back a precarious calm.
Donald Trump refused to condemn the actions of this young man, Kyle Rittenhouse, indicted for premeditated murder.
Unlike his rival, Joe Biden relentlessly denounces “institutional racism” in the United States. And, as in response to the billionaire who accuses him of laxity in the face of the riots, he has also criticized for several days with more emphasis “violence, fires, looting”.
The Democratic candidate leads Donald Trump in the national poll average, but the gap is narrower in key states.
While leaving with a serious financial delay on the outgoing president, Joe Biden announced Wednesday to have collected 364.5 million dollars in August, of which 205 million in small donations on the internet. Either “the best month of online fundraising in American political history”.