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Joe Biden’s familiar straight talk faces Donald Trump’s doublespeak

By Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

He’s alive!

After watching his widely praised speech at the socially distanced Democratic National Convention, I wondered when Joe Biden would come out of his basement again, even if it was only to give a little balance to the whoppers pouring out of the White House.

If the political rise of President Donald Trump has taught us anything, it is the importance of a candidate expressing his or her beliefs with a passion and commitment that says they’re speaking on voters’ behalf.

As this year’s race comes down to the wire, we know Trump is behind in the polls, but not by much. In fact, he’s nail-bitingly close to where the race looked four years ago at this point.

But this time he is burdened by two crises that he didn’t create himself: the coronavirus pandemic, and the national racial reckoning and protests that have followed the death of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

In response, Team Trump turns to his long-established tactics: distractions, deflection and the demonization of his rivals. The result has been the creation of a new Trump-style doublespeak that, for example, led the White House to describe Trump’s trip to racially troubled Kenosha, Wis., on Tuesday as “unifying.”

 

It’s too bad that wasn’t true. Kenosha has been reeling from days of demonstrations and destruction unleashed by the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back.

That was followed by the arrest of Kyle Rittenhouse, a white teen from Antioch, Ill. The self-styled vigilante was charged with fatally shooting two white Black Lives Matter protesters and wounding a third in Kenosha.

It was about time for Biden to speak up, and in his own speech on crime and safety Monday in Pittsburgh, he did. Forcefully.

“Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?” Biden said. “We need justice in America. We need safety in America. We’re facing multiple crises — crises that, under Donald Trump, have kept multiplying.”

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(c) 2020 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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