The NPR Politics Podcast - 'He Thinks Division Helps Him': Biden Condemns Trump's Protest Response

Episode Date: June 2, 2020

Former Vice President Joe Biden condemned both police violence and President Trump's increasingly confrontational response to widespread unrest in a Tuesday morning speech delivered at Philadelphia City Hall. This episode: campaign correspondent Scott Detrow, campaign reporter Juana Summers, and senior political ediotr and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio stationLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. It is 2.07 Eastern on Tuesday, June 2nd. I'm Scott Detrow. I cover the presidential campaign. I'm Juana Summers. I also cover the campaign. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. All right. So a day after peaceful protesters were physically cleared out from Lafayette Park with tear gas in order for President Trump to walk across to visit a church damaged by a fire, former Vice President Joe Biden delivered a forceful speech condemning the act. When peaceful protesters dispersed in order for a president, a president from the doorstep of the people's house, the White House,

using tear gas and flash grenades in order to stage a photo op, a photo op in one of the most historic churches in the country, or at least in Washington, D.C. We can be forgiven for believing the president is more interested in power than in principle. We're interested in serving the passions of his base and the needs of the people in his care. This was part of a broader message that Biden delivered from Philadelphia's City Hall that the country needs to begin to unify and that as president, he would focus on unifying, not dividing. I ask every American, I mean this in the bottom of my heart, I ask every American, look at where we are now and think anew. Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be?

Is this who we want to pass on to our children and our grandchildren? Fear, anger, finger pointing, rather than the pursuit of happiness, incompetence and anxiety, self-absorption, selfishness? Or do we want to be the America we know we can be? The America we know in our hearts we could be and should be. Juana, we've talked so much about how when he's campaigning, Joe Biden can often meander or ramble or not really deliver a forceful message. To me, this was the clearest, most evocative moment of his campaign. What did you think? Yeah, that's right, Scott. I think for me, this is the clearest and most succinct we've ever heard Joe Biden make the case that defeating President Trump is not enough to heal the nation's centuries old divisions and hatreds. I think as I listened to this speech, I heard him present a lot

of empathy. He clearly wanted to show people that he was listening. But you also heard him give an account of this country's failures repeatedly to live up to its own ideals. And also some of former Vice President Biden's aspirations. You heard him talk about reaching for the kind of America that we can be and that we could be if we address racial inequity in a substantive way. I mean, what President Trump did yesterday by leaving the White House and having the area cleared of peaceful protesters using those smoke bombs and just to take a photo in front of a church with a Bible really plays into the narrative of the Biden candidacy in the first place. Remember, Biden said that he was spurred into action to become a candidate because of Charlottesville, because of the racist violence that took place there and President Trump's reaction to it. And I think we should also remember that, you know, this is the kind of sweet spot for Biden, empathy, grief. I mean, he wrote a book about it after his son Beau died. He alluded to that

during the speech. And the themes of hope after the darkness and finding purpose are kind of what defines Biden. Yeah. I mean, when your campaign revolves around the idea of the soul of the nation, it's an easier point to make when you have visuals like we've seen over the last few days. Let's walk through a couple of moments because I think there were two big themes of the speech that I want to talk about. Let's start with some of the criticisms of the way that President Trump has handled this, including the pandemic, the economic fallout, and now this unrest following police killings. The pain is raw. The pain is real. The President of the United States must be part of the solution, not the problem. But this president today is part of the problem and accelerates it. When he

tweeted the words, when the looting starts, the shooting starts, they weren't the words of a president. They were the words of a racist Miami police chief in the 60s. Yeah, so when I hear those words, I think it seems that the former vice president is intentionally tying President Trump's words this week's and the weeks that have passed to some of the racist traditions of this country. He's making the point here that words like saying when the looting starts, the shooting starts, those didn't come out of thin air. They are things that have historical meaning and painful historical meaning for African Americans and so many people in this country. Yeah. And Biden also mentioned something that we've talked about. And you've heard, you

know, people from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser on down also point to, and that was when the president talked about the vicious dogs of the Secret Service. Just such an evocation of the civil rights era and dogs that were used to quell protests. All right, so I want to talk about one other theme of the speech, because one of the things that we've been talking about on this podcast is the calls from a lot of corners for President Trump to give the typical big picture, unifying, forward-looking speech saying, you know, this is a hard time, but we're going to get through it, and here's why. And the president just has chosen not to do that. And it seemed like Biden was almost trying to step in for the role that he wants to have next year, right in this particular moment. You know, we're a nation in pain. We must let our pain destroy us. We're a nation enraged,

but we cannot let our rage consume us. We're a nation that's exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us. In Domenico, one other problem that Biden's had is that he just doesn't get the coverage that President Trump gets. This was the rare moment where he had every cable news TV channel airing a Biden speech in full.

He seemed to insert himself into the story in a way he's just had a hard time doing for a variety of reasons. And lucky for him, it was one of the better speeches he's given because, frankly, he has not been a great campaigner. You know, we followed him around Iowa and other places and, you know, have seen how he can get off script. And he's just not as sharp as he used to be when it comes to campaigning. But, you know, I mean, this idea that don't let rage consume us is kind of a place where Biden wants to be able to look to unify, right? I mean, that he faced a lot of criticism from the progressive left, because his candidacy was

built on this idea of unite. And that was something that, you know, some people on the left are upset, they're outraged, they want to fight back. And Biden is somebody who's built a candidacy around saying, yes, be upset, use it as fuel, but we've got to get what we can and use the political process in a way to move progress forward. Yeah. All right, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we will look at some of the specific steps that Joe Biden was calling for, and whether they're enough to not only solve the problems the country is facing, but whether they're enough to win over some of the voters that Biden needs to win the election. We'll be right back.

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And we're back. And I want to start with this because this is something we've been emailing and talking about. We have been hearing that a lot of African-American voters, particularly younger African-Americans, want specifics. That's something I heard from a lot of the people speaking to Biden at that event in Wilmington yesterday, something you've been hearing too. So let's walk through the specifics that Biden laid out in this speech. What did you hear that jumped out to you? Yeah, that's absolutely right. I think a lot of activists have been wanting to hear Biden affirmatively make the case for why they should support him rather than just saying, just to

streamline it, that he's not Trump, so that he should be supported by them. But we did hear him come out with some more specifics, I think the biggest of which was he expressed some support for some federal legislation that would ban chokeholds. We also heard him talk about the need to set up national use of force best practices, stopping military gear transfers to local police, encouraging departments to embrace community policing programs, calling for every police department to undergo a care that was championed by his final primary opponent, Bernie Sanders and many others. But he said that expanding and shoring up the Affordable Care Act is the best way to get there. Scott Domenico, I was actually thinking about so many of those conversations I've had with activists who want to see the scale of Biden's responses and his platforms meet the scale of the moment that we're in right now, where we're dealing with a devastating pandemic that is devastating the

health of many communities. We're dealing with an economic downturn that's left many people out of work. And we're dealing with a scourge of police brutality in this country. They want to see big systemic change. So I think if some of these activists, that part at least, may not be enough to get them on the side of Joe Biden. Because, Domenico, this is the classic struggle that Biden has been trying to figure out how to approach as soon as it became clear he's the nominee. Like, clearly, there is widespread view in this country that what happened to George Floyd from the evidence we've seen is horrific. But when you get into the big

fixes for police violence, what the progressive left, especially the progressive left that is out there protesting and advocating wants, might be a lot different than what, you know, the suburban swing voter that Biden thinks is his path to the presidency wants to see. Yeah, and he has to strike that balance. I mean, we're looking at a general election right now, and President Trump is trying to strike that balance from a more hardline law and order perspective. Biden is trying to come at it from feeling empathy and understanding for why there's why people are upset in this country and why things need to change, but also being able to say that he thinks the violent demonstrations go too far.

You know, the Biden campaign, frankly, has been kind of annoyed that he hasn't been given credit for the specifics that they feel he has put forward already. You know, and today you did hear in addition to what Juana was mentioning, standardization of police protocol, which is something that the states and local police departments have been against for some time. And there is this huge divide generationally, which Juana has done a ton of reporting on. We've all seen it. Older African Americans know Biden. They trust him. They know his heart's in the right place. Younger African American voters aren't sold on that. And Biden is in some ways very new to them. And he's got to demonstrate and win them over today, rather than based on what he's done and who he was vice president for. Yeah. And one other thing that I think is worth

noting is that there had already been a lot of pressure on Biden to pick a woman of color as his running mate. And I think there's a lot of argument that the racial strife that the country has seen over the last few weeks, that looks like it's not stopping anytime soon, makes even more of a demand for him to really seriously consider that. That's something we heard again in recent days. Biden obviously is not going to commit to one specific person or another. But his response is that, yes, there are a lot of women of color on the list that his campaign is starting to look through. Absolutely. I think, you know, Kamala Harris was already sort of a frontrunner, the senator from California, because she has a good relationship with Biden and knew Beau Biden was

they were both attorneys general together. I think her stock has definitely gone up. And, you know, someone like Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Atlanta mayor, I mean, that speech she gave Friday night, she's somebody who has been a surrogate for Biden's campaign, has been out there, was a guest of Jill Biden's at the very first debate that Biden was at. So, you know, there are people who Biden absolutely is going to have more at the top of the list. I think Val Demings from Florida, for example, is another candidate. I think the three of them, their stock has gone way up compared to someone like Elizabeth Warren or Amy Klobuchar.

I do think, though, that one thing when I've been talking to some Black women who've worked in campaigns about this issue is that, yes, of course, they certainly want to see a Black woman on the ticket, but for it to be because she's the most qualified person, not just because the country is yet again embroiled in a moment of racial strife and agony, and that it's important, yes, to have that person as a partner, but also to have the priorities of Black people, and particularly Black women who are the backbone of the Democratic Party, woven into these conversations, woven into the policies and the platform that Joe Biden will run on. Because as folks say, racism is

indeed on the ballot in 2020. Yeah. All right, that's a wrap for today. We will be back tomorrow. I'm Scott Detrow. I cover the presidential campaign. I'm Juana Summers. I also cover the campaign. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. Thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.