Joe Biden has met with the family of Jacob Blake, the black man shot seven times in the back by a white police officer during an arrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The 2020 Democratic presidential nominee and wife Jill Biden spoke privately with the 29-year-old’s family and his legal team in an airport hangar shortly after arriving in the crucial battleground state. They had previously talked over the phone.
The Bidens will also host a community meeting to discuss racial injustice and police brutality and schools reopening roundtable as part of the campaign swing, the first time a Democratic standard-bearer has visited Wisconsin since President Barack Obama did in November 2012.
The former vice president defended the trip Wednesday after criticizing President Trump for making the same journey Tuesday. A meeting with Blake’s family wasn’t on Trump’s schedule because he didn’t want to talk to them with their lawyers present.
“There’s been overwhelming requests that I do come,” Biden told reporters. “Because what we want to do is we’ve got to heal, we’ve got to put things together, bring people together. My purpose in going is to do just that, to be a positive influence.”
Biden’s visit to Kenosha coincides with the release of a new 60-second digital ad called “We’re Listening.” The spot, part of a $45 million spend this week, will air on national cable news networks and in local Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin media markets in the coming days.
“We can’t turn away. Now is the time for racial justice,” the candidate says in the ad.
Blake remains hospitalized, paralyzed from the waist down, after the Aug. 23 shooting. Civil unrest turned deadly between protesters and counterprotesters after the incident, but tensions have since eased.
