Joe Biden borrowed President Trump’s “low energy” and “American carnage” taglines Wednesday in a speech ripping the president for his perceived tolerance of white nationalism and gun violence.
Biden, 76, tore into Trump for his White House address earlier this week, scheduled after a white supremacist shot dead 22 people in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday. The following day another man killed nine people in Dayton, Ohio.
“This president has fanned the flames of white supremacy in this nation. His low-energy, vacant-eyed mouthing of the words written for him condemning white supremacists this week, I don’t believe fooled anyone,” the former vice president said during a speech in Burlington, Iowa.
Biden, who is in the Hawkeye State with much of the 2020 Democratic presidential field for the Iowa State Fair, referenced the promise Trump made in his 2017 inauguration speech to end “American carnage” “right here, right now.” The longtime senator for Delaware said the carnage had continued because the president courts the “deepest, darkest, forces in this nation” and has been soft on gun control.
“He seems more concerned about losing their votes than beating back their hateful ideology,” he said. “Hatred isn’t a mental health issue.”
Biden has pegged his campaign as “a battle for the soul of this nation” amid rising extremism. On Wednesday he called for a domestic terrorism law.
“We can do it without infringing on anybody’s free speech,” he said.
The White House hopeful said Trump’s rhetoric betrayed his lack of understanding that “America is an idea.”
“It’s an idea stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant. It gives hope to the most desperate people on earth,” he said, before urging Americans to choose “hope over fear,” “science over fiction,” “unity over division,” and “truth over lies.”
“We can’t and I will not let this man be reelected president of the United States of America,” he added.
Biden’s appearance didn’t go unnoticed by Trump.
“Watching Sleepy Joe Biden making a speech. Sooo Boring!” the president tweeted.
