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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Biden talks to Jacob Blake, hears from Kenoshans

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Biden talks to Jacob Blake, hears from Kenoshans
Biden talks to Jacob Blake, hears from Kenoshans

[NFA] Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden put himself squarely in the middle of ongoing national tumult over racial injustice and police brutality on Thursday, meeting with residents of strife-torn Kenosha, Wisconsin, and speaking by phone with the Black man shot there by police.

This report produced by Chris Dignam.

"I can't guarantee you everything gets solved in four years.

But I guarantee you one thing, it'll be a whole heck of a lot better." At a community meeting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Thursday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden sought to bring healing to a city rocked by civil unrest, after a white police officer shot a Black man in the back last week, followed by protests that turned deadly.

"We cannot let up.

Violence in any form is wrong." Biden also spoke about his meeting with the family of Jacob Blake, the Black man whose shooting by police left him paralyzed from the waist down, and the former vice president said he spoke on the phone with Blake himself, who is now out of the ICU.

"He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him, how whether he walked again or not he was not going to give up... And what I came away with was the overwhelming sense of resilience and optimism... And his mom said a prayer.

But she said I'm praying for Jacob and I'm praying for the policemen as well.

I'm praying that things change." President Donald Trump visited Kenosha on Tuesday, but did not meet with Blake's family.

Instead, he visited a furniture store that was destroyed in the upheaval.

Trump has also declined to condemn violent acts by his supporters and defended a 17-year-old Blue Lives Matter supporter that has been charged with killing two people and wounding another with a semi-automatic rifle during a clash with Kenosha protesters.

Trump has increasingly made the national protests over racial inequality and police brutality a central theme of his campaign.

At a campaign stop in Latrobe, Pennsylvania on Thursday, Trump sought to emphasize his "law and order" message.

"Biden's plan is to appease the domestic terrorists and my plan is to arrest them and prosecute them."

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