Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden plans to travel to Pittsburgh on Monday to deliver a speech that his campaign says will lay out a "core question" for voters: "Are you safe in Donald Trump's America?"
Biden's remarks come as President Trump's reelection campaign continues to push the law-and-order message that voters "won't be safe in Joe Biden's America."
Biden is expected to lambaste the president for what Biden sees as a lack of moral leadership — a common refrain from the former vice president on the campaign trail.
Biden is expected to speak at 1:30 p.m. ET. Watch live here.
We are facing multiple crises — crises that, under Donald Trump, keep multiplying," Biden plans to say, according to speech excerpts released from his campaign. "COVID, economic devastation, unwarranted police violence, emboldened white nationalists, a reckoning on race, declining faith in a bright American future. The common thread? An incumbent president who makes things worse, not better. An incumbent president who sows chaos rather than providing order."
Biden's trip to Pennsylvania comes amid national protests in response to police violence and the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. That shooting has led to several days of unrest in the city, which resulted in the shooting deaths of two people, allegedly by an armed vigilante. In Portland, Ore., a man was fatally shot during a night of confrontations between Trump supporters and counterprotesters.
"[Trump] can't stop the violence because for years he has fomented it. He may believe mouthing the words 'law and order' makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows you how weak he is," Biden is expected to say.
Trump, who will travel to Latrobe, Pa., on Thursday, reacted to Biden's plans to campaign in the Keystone State in a series of tweets in which he called Biden "weak on crime" and appeared to try to shame Biden for mainly campaigning in his home state of Delaware because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Joe Biden is coming out of the basement earlier than his hoped for ten days because his people told him he has no choice, his poll numbers are PLUNGING! Going to Pittsburgh, where I have helped industry to a record last year, & then back to his basement for an extended period...
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2020
Trump continues to present himself as a "tough on crime" president, a message that was front and center during last week's Republican convention, and has tweetedthat Biden has not criticized any violence that has resulted from protests.
However, Biden has denounced such violence, saying in a statement on Sunday: "I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right. And I challenge Donald Trump to do the same."
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
