Joe Biden accused President Trump of being weak and scared after the incumbent president declined to criticize Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old vigilante who was charged with murder after allegedly killing two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“Yesterday, after the violence in Portland, I put out a statement decrying violence under any political banner, and challenged the President to do the same,” Biden said in a statement Monday night. “Tonight, the President declined to rebuke violence. He wouldn’t even repudiate one of his supporters who is charged with murder because of his attacks on others. He is too weak, too scared of the hatred he has stirred to put an end to it.”
In Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, an apparent pro-Trump demonstrator was killed. Last week, as well as riots and fires in Kenosha following the police shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, Rittenhouse traveled from Illinois to Kenosha in hopes of joining other vigilantes to defend private property and allegedly killed two people and injured one other.
During a press conference on Monday, Trump was asked to condemn vigilantes such as Rittenhouse.
“He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like,” he said. “And he fell, and then, they very violently attacked him.”
Rittenhouse’s legal defense, and prominent conservative defenders, say that he acted in self-defense.
“I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed. It’s under investigation.”
Biden asserted that Trump is unfit to be president.
“So once again, I urge the President to join me in saying that while peaceful protest is a right — a necessity — violence is wrong, period. No matter who does it, no matter what political affiliation they have. Period. If Donald Trump can’t say that, then he is unfit to be President, and his preference for more violence — not less — is clear,” the former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee said.
Trump’s campaign fired back with its own statement less than half an hour later that accused Biden of being weak.
“Joe Biden today failed to stand up to the radicals in his party when he refused to call rioters what they are: violent left-wing mobs. The criminals ravaging American cities are aligned with the extreme elements of the Democrat Party, but Biden is too weak to say so and voters are noticing,” an unsigned press release said.
Biden earlier on Monday gave a speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that turned Trump’s recent arguments that violence would increase if Biden was elected back onto the incumbent president, accusing Trump of inciting fear and violence.
