Following the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, former Vice President Joe Biden jabbed at President Trump over his “divisive” rhetoric.
Biden raised the issue at a Sun Valley, Idaho, fundraiser, discussing themes he regularly brings up at such events. Biden, usually tells donors at fundraisers around the country that he decided to enter the race because of Trump’s reaction to the August 2017 events in Charlottesville, Virginia, when a white supremacist deliberately drove into a crowd of people who had been peacefully protesting the Unite the Right rally, killing Heather Heyer, 32, and injuring 28 people.
Biden, 76, denounced Trump’s remarks about the Charlottesville episode two years ago, and what he called an inadequate response to the killings in El Paso, which claimed 22 lives and Dayton, where nine died.
“When the president was asked to comment, he said something that no president in history has every said. He said, ‘There were very fine people in both groups.’ And, it hasn’t stopped since then,” said Biden, 76. “He has been divisive, and characterless as he was then.”
Trump condemned hate and white nationalism in his public remarks from the White House on Monday following the mass shootings over the weekend.
“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,” Trump said. “These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America.”
