"Ask yourself: do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?"

Joe Biden went to Pittsburg today, where he read a speech indoors. Here's the video. I can't tell if he has an audience. There's no engagement with any questioners. I don't really know how this is different from speaking from his own home, but it was presented in the press as an important occasion. The NYT says: "Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Monday issued a forceful rebuttal to President Trump’s misleading charges that he would preside over a country wracked by disorder and lawlessness...." I watched the first minute of the video, but it was too tedious. I was distracted by the metal grid behind him.



I thought it looked like a screen and fantasized about a remake of "The Fly."



So I'm just going to read the transcript and react to it for you as I read:

In recent days, we’ve had a lot of talk about who’s going where and how I’ve decided to come to Pittsburgh to talk a little bit about what’s going on right now....

So vague. Such a weak beginning. You'd think he'd specify what the talk was. Trump's going to Lake Charles, Louisiana and Kenosha, Wisconsin? If he'd specified, we'd know Trump's decisions were based on the hurricane and the Jacob Blake incident. But there's no reason for choosing Pittsburgh. It's just: Here I am in Pittsburgh, talking a little bit. There's a lack of drive and purpose.

In the early days of World War II, Franklin Roosevelt told the country, and I quote, “The news is going to get worse and worse before it gets better and better. And the American people deserve to have it straight from the shoulder.” Straight from the shoulder. The job of a president is to tell it straight from the shoulder, tell the truth, to be candid, to face facts, to lead, not to incite. That’s why I’m speaking to you today. The incumbant president is incapable of telling us the truth, incapable of facing the facts and incapable of healing. He doesn’t want to shed light, he wants to generate heat and he’s stroking violence in our cities.

I checked the video, and he really does say that Trump is "stroking violence in our cities." Meade says, "He's thinking about how he likes to stroke little girls' hair."

Anyway, does Biden seem to want to shed light? He's accusing Trump of inciting violence. Ridiculous! Trump is offering to help end the violence and waiting for local authorities — Democratic politicians — to accept the offer. Will Biden ask these politicians to welcome the federal help? If not, it's absurd to blame Trump.

This is a tragic fact of the matter, how he’s dealing with this perilous hour in our nation.

The transcript cleans up a lot of stumbling in that sentence. He actually says: "You know, this is a tragic fact of the matter, about his perilous hour and how he's dealing with his perilous hour in our nation."

And now we have to stand against violence in every form it takes. Violence we’ve seen again and again and again, of unwarranted police shooting, excessive force, seven bullets in the back of Jacob Blake. Knee on the neck of George Floyd, killing of Breonna Taylor in her own apartment, violence of extremists and opportunists, right wing militias…

The video malfunctions at that point and "militias" repeats a few times, then we jump to the middle of a sentence.

... and to derail any hope and support for progress, the senseless violence of looting and burning and destruction of property. I want to make it absolutely clear, so I’m going 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. Violence will not bring change, it will only bring destruction. It’s wrong in every way. It divides instead of unites, destroys businesses, only hurts the working families that serve the community. It makes things worse across the board, not better. No, it’s not what Dr. King or John Lewis taught and it must end.

Good. He needed to say that.

Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames rather than fighting the flames. 

Seems to me, Trump is offering to fight the flames but the local officials reject the help. Presumably, Biden is referring to things that Trump is saying that are supposedly making the rioters more destructive, but I don't know what that is. I don't see the riots as being about Trump at all. They're about the police in cities that are run by Democrats.

But we must not burn, we have to build. This president, long ago, forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can’t stop the violence because for years he’s 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 how weak he is.

He's not just "mouthing the words law and order." He's offering to send in federal forces to stop the violence. Biden just seems dishonest not to talk about this and not to talk about the role of local Democratic officials. Can I just announce that Biden has "forfeited any moral leadership"?

Does anyone believe there’ll be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?

This is the line that I saw in news reports before the speech, and my reaction was yes. Why would the rioters stand down because Joe Biden gets elected? I don't see how you can look at these protests and form the belief that what these people want is just a Democratic President.

We need justice in America. We need safety in America. We’re facing multiple crises. Crises that under Donald Trump have kept multiplying. COVID, economic devastation, unwarranted police violence, [inaudible 00:03:48] white nationalists, a reckoning on race, declining faith in the birth of the right American future. There’s no reason why we can’t just do so much more than we’re doing. 

What would you do that Trump hasn't done?

The common threat, the incumbent president who makes things worse, not better, an incumbent president who sows chaos rather than providing order. An incumbent president who fails in the basic duty of the job, which is to advance the truth that all of us know, that we’re all born with the right to life, Liberty, and pursuit of happiness. That’s right. All of us, the moms and dads in Scranton, where I grew up, who have worked and scraped for everything they’ve ever gotten in life....

This is entirely bland and empty. There's no difference between Trump and Biden on the belief that we're born with a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! There follows a list of types of people — the auto worker, the single mom, etc. I'll skip that.

When I think of the presidency, I don’t think about myself. It isn’t about my brand. It’s about you, the American people. 

No, it's actually about you, Joe. What do you have to offer?!

We can do better and we have to do better. I promise you this. We will do better. The road back begins now in this campaign. You know me, you know my heart, you know my story, my family story. Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really? 

Why then would the rioters stand down if you're elected? I would expect the protesters to be just as angry and dissatisfied with you as with Trump. They want radical socialism. You're a big disappointment to them. If you're weak and bland, they'll take advantage of you. I don't see how your oft-mentioned "heart" can save us.

I want a safe America, safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops. 

But you're not just another voter, sharing our wants. You've got to be able to do something, and you seem much weaker than Trump.

Let me be crystal clear, safe from four more years of Donald Trump. I look at this violence and I see lives and communities and the dreams of small businesses being destroyed and the opportunity for real progress on issues of race and police reform and justice being put to the test. Donald Trump looks at this violence and he sees a political lifeline. Having failed to protect this nation from the virus that has killed more than 180,000 Americans so far, Trump posts an all caps tweet, screaming, “Law and order,” to save his campaign.

But you went to Pittsburgh to say that to try to save your campaign.

One of his closest political advisers in the White House doesn’t even bother to speak in code, just comes out and she says it. “The more chaos, violence, the better it is for Trump’s reelection.” Just think about that. This is a sitting president of the United States of America. He’s supposed to be protecting this country, but instead he’s rooting for chaos and violence. 

He's acknowledging a reality that you know is true and that motivated you to come up out of the basement sooner than you'd said you would. That doesn't mean he's rooting for more violence, only that you're hoping it will go away, so it won't hurt you. Why don't you call on the Democratic mayors and governors to accept federal help to stop the violence?

The simple truth is Donald Trump failed to protect America. 

Isn't the "simple truth" complicated by the failure of Democratic mayors and governors to accept the help Trump is offering? This assertion is dishonest and infuriating.

So now he’s trying to scare America. Since Donald Trump and Mike Pence can’t run on their record that has seen more American death to a virus, this virus, then the nation suffered in every war since Korea combined, since they can’t run on their economy that has seen more people lose their jobs than any time since the Great Depression, since they can’t run on a simple proposition of sending our children safely back to school, since they have no agenda or vision for a second term, Trump and Pence are running on this. And I find it fascinating. “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.” And what’s their proof? The violence we’re seeing in Donald Trump’s America. 

In cities that have been controlled by Democrats for years.

These are not images of some imagined Joe Biden America in the future. These are images of Donald Trump’s America today. He keeps telling you if only he was president, it wouldn’t happen. If he was president. He keeps telling us that he was president you’d feel safe. Well, he is president. 

I'm sure that's hilarious to hardcore Democrats, but — and I say this as someone who has often voted for Democrats, including in the last presidential election — it disgusts me. Trump doesn't say "if only I were President." It's a made-up line, used to tell a dumb joke in this empty, padded speech.

Whether he knows it or not, and it is happening, it’s getting worse. And you know why? Because Donald Trump adds fuel to every fire because he refuses to even acknowledge that there’s a racial justice problem in America because he won’t stand up to any form of violence. 

Did he watch the GOP convention?

He’s got no problem with right-wing militia, white supremacists, and vigilantes with assault weapons often better armed than the police. 

That's just a lie.

Often in the middle of the violence at the protestors and aiming it there. And because tens of millions of Americans simply don’t trust this president to respect their rights, to hear their concerns or to protect them. It doesn’t have to be this way. When President Obama and I were in the White House, we had to defend federal property. We did it. We didn’t see it. You didn’t see us whipping up fears around the deployment of secret federal troops. We just did our job and the federal property was protected. When president Obama and I were in office, we didn’t look at cities as Democratic or Republican run. 

See how he's avoiding the issue I want him to face. The badly run cities are run by Democrats, so your failing to look at that was to your partisan political advantage. You can't claim credit for that.

These are American cities. But Trump doesn’t see himself as president for all of America. 

There's no basis for that statement. It's just dishonest.

Frankly, I believe if I were president today, the country would be safer and we’d be seeing a lot less violence...

Why?

... and here’s why. 

I'm listening....

I have said we must address the issue of racial injustice. I’ve personally spoken to George Floyd’s family, and to Jacob Blake’s family. I know their pain. And so do you. I know the justice they seek and so do you. They’ve told us, “None of this violence respects or honors George or Jacob.” I believe it can bring these folks fighting for racial justice to the table.

Not sure what "it" refers to. Maybe he said "I" and the transcript is wrong. Biden is asserting that he has the power to address the issue of racial injustice — a term he never elaborates — because he has done phone calls with family members of those who died in encounters with the police.

I’ve worked with police in this country for many years. I know most cops are good, decent people. I know how they risk their lives every time they put that shield on and go out the door. I’m confident I can bring the police to the table as well. I’d make sure every mayor and governor had the support they needed from the federal government. But I wouldn’t be looking to use the United States military against our own people. If I were president, my language would be less divisive, I’d be looking to lower the temperature in this country, not raise it. I’d be looking to unite the nation. But look, if Donald Trump wants to ask the question, “Who will keep you safer as president?” Let’s answer that question. First, some simple facts. When I was vice president, violent crime fell 15% in this country. We did it without chaos and disorder.  And yes, we did it with Democratic mayors in most of the major cities in this country. The murder right now is up 26% across the nation this year under Donald Trump. 

With Democratic mayors in the major cities.

Do you really feel safer under Donald Trump? 

I don't feel safer, but it's because of the local officials, who are Democrats. What can be done about that?

Biden switches to talking about the coronavirus, cites some statistics, then says: "Do you really feel safe under Donald Trump? Mr. Trump, you want to talk about fear?" There's talk of Russia, the economy, and then a big play for Pennsylvania:

I am not banning fracking. Let me say that again. I am not banning fracking....

Not banning.

Donald Trump has been a toxic presence in our nation for four years. Poisoning how we talk to one another, poisoning how we treat one another, poisoning the values this nation has always held dear, poisoning our very democracy. Now, in just a little over 60 days, we have a decision to make. Will we rid ourselves of this toxin or will we make it a permanent part of our nation’s character?...

This is the crux of the argument. Trump is toxic, and the only alternative at this point is Biden, a man reputed to have a bigger heart.

Look, I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, America is an idea. It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world. And I believe it beats in the hearts of the people of this country. All men and women are created equal and they deserve to be treated equally. Trump has sought to remake this nation in his image. Selfish, angry, dark, and divisive. This is not who we are. At her best, America’s always been, and if I have anything to do it, it will be again, generous, confident, an optimistic nation full of hope and resolve. Donald Trump is determined to instill fear in America. That’s what his entire campaign for the president has come down to, fear. But I believe Americans are stronger than that. I believe we’ll be guided by the words of Pope John Paul II, words drawn from the scriptures: Be not afraid, be not afraid. Fear never builds the future, but hope does. And building the future is what America does, what we’ve always done. In fact, it’s what we have done best and continue to do best. This is the United States of America. There’s not a single thing beyond our capacity when we decide to do it together. So let’s get together. I want to thank you all. May God bless you, and may God protect our troops.

Trump is "selfish, angry, dark, and divisive" and that's inconsistent with the idea of America. That's the message. But you look at the protests, and what are those people saying is "the idea of America"? They say "systemic racism." Biden can only promise to deal with "issues of racial justice."

So that's what the NYT called a "forceful rebuttal" to Trump. To me, it's very disappointing.