Biden, Trump personify partisan divide on continuing protests

WASHINGTON — As protests over the death of an unarmed black man in police custody erupted around the nation, the political divide on the issue between Republican and Democrats was personified.

Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden called for unity in a speech he gave Tuesday morning.

“The country is crying out for leadership, leadership that can unite us,” Biden said at Philadelphia’s City Hall. He sought to differentiate between “legitimate political protest” that reflects public anger over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and “opportunistic violent destruction” that has haunted some demonstrations.

On the other hand, President Donald Trump declared himself to be the “law and order” president, who has criticized governors for being “weak” because they failed to quickly mobilize the National Guard to quell protests, and who has threatened to respond to violence with federal force.

Controversial walk

Trump demonstrated his approach Monday, striding confidently to St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., after law enforcement authorities were directed to clear Lafayette Park using smoke canisters and pepper balls, a walk that earned Trump condemnation and criticism from political rivals.

Said Biden: “I ask every American to look at where we are now, and think anew: Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be? Is this what we pass on to our kids’ and grandkids’ lives? Fear and finger-pointing rather than hope and the pursuit of happiness? Incompetence and anxiety? Self-absorption and selfishness?”

Trump 2020 senior adviser Katrina Pierson accused Biden of using the “politics of racial division,” contrasting him with the president, who “made it clear that he would not abide our cities being overtaken by violent, uncontrollable rioters.”

Republican critics

Even some members of Trump’s own party, however, criticized his approach.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., tweeted, “There is no right to riot, no right to destroy others’ property, and no right to throw rocks at police. But there is a fundamental — a Constitutional — right to protest, and I’m against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo-op that treats the Word of God as a political prop.”

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., told CNN Trump “needs to strike a tone that fits the level of frustration the country’s experiencing right now, and I hope in the future he’ll do that.”

Trump’s disapproval rating climbed from 50.1 percent May 4 to 53.9 percent Monday in the RealClearPolitics polling average.

Democratic pollster Paul Maslin likened the chaos of 2020 to the voter angst of 1980, when Republican challenger Ronald Reagan asked Americans if they were better off after four years of President Jimmy Carter. Reagan won.

Maslin sees a role-reversal 40 years later, with Biden in the same position as Reagan was back then. “It’s a country in chaos. That’s not good for the incumbent,” he offered.

Rioters versus law

Friend and former Biden adviser Moe Vela said that Trump thought his church visit would excite his base, but “it backfired on him.” Instead Trump’s words and deeds notified America, “you better vote for Joe Biden unless you want to live in a fascist government.”

The Trump response, however, has been to link Biden to “the rioters, the people burning businesses in minority communities and causing mayhem, by donating to post bail for those arrested,” as Pierson said in a statement.

Reuters reported 13 Biden campaign staffers donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which uses donations to pay bail fees in Minneapolis. A Biden campaign spokesman told Reuters that Biden opposes cash bail as “modern day debtors’ prison.”

Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael J. McDonald, a former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer, had no use for Biden’s approach, especially after a Metro officer was shot in the head Monday night while policing protests.

“We’re being targeted because we wear a badge,” he said.

“If the violence continues for another several days, I don’t think the president will have much choice” but to get involved, said Stephen Moore, a member of Trump’s economic task force.

Even as Trump told the nation’s governors that he’d put Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley in charge of the federal government’s protest response, a predecessor in that job spoke up with rare criticism of the current commander-in-chief.

Retired Adm. Mike Mullen wrote in The Atlantic, “It sickened me yesterday to see security personnel — including members of the National Guard — forcibly and violently clear a path through Lafayette Square to accommodate the president’s visit outside St. John’s Church. I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trump’s leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent.”

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.