Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, “will hold a community meeting in Kenosha to bring together Americans to heal and address the challenges we face,” and will make another stop in the city, his campaign said Wednesday.
Biden told reporters Wednesday that he has received “overwhelming requests” from Democratic leaders that he travel to Wisconsin.
“What we want to do is — we’ve got to heal. We’ve got to put things together. Bring people together,” Biden said.
Trump is trying to hold onto at least one of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — the three states that catapulted him to the presidency in 2016 after he narrowly won each of them. He is also seeking to put Minnesota, a state Hillary Clinton won and where some property damage took place amid largely peaceful protests following George Floyd’s death after a police officer knelt on his neck, in play.
Trump’s campaign launched television ads in Minnesota and Wisconsin on Wednesday driving a “law and order” theme, featuring in those ads lies about Biden’s position on defunding the police — which the former vice president has repeatedly said he opposes — and falsely claiming that Trump deployed the National Guard in Wisconsin, an action taken by Evers, the governor.
“Do you really feel safer under Donald Trump?” Biden asked repeatedly in a speech in Pittsburgh.
He also condemned violence, looting and property damage — and lambasted Trump for failing to condemn, and partially praising, Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old charged with allegedly killing two protesters in Kenosha.
“I want to be very clear about all of this: Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted,” Biden said. “Violence will not bring change, it will only bring destruction. It’s wrong in every way.”
While in Kenosha on Tuesday, Trump did not meet with the family of Blake. Trump claimed that he’s not meeting with Blake’s family during his Wisconsin visit because they wanted to involve lawyers. The pastors of Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, took part in one event.
During the trip, Trump was asked by a reporter whether he thinks systemic racism is a problem in the United States, given that there are also peaceful protests around the country calling for an end to it. The President responded: “Well, you know you just keep getting back to the opposite subject. We should talk about the kind of violence we’ve seen in Portland and here and other places.”
“The fact is that we’ve seen tremendous violence and we will put it out very, very quickly if given the chance,” he continued.
CNN’s Maegan Vazquez contributed to this report.
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