Joe Biden attempted to regain the narrative in the US presidential election on Wednesday, telling Donald Trump to “get off Twitter” and focus on safely reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Democratic nominee sought to put the virus back at the heart of the campaign after two weeks that saw the president capitalise on sporadic violence in American cities, which has blighted largely peaceful protests over police brutality and systemic racism, to push a “law and order” theme and force Biden on to the back foot.
With opinion polls narrowing two months before election day, Trump and Biden gave duelling speeches, both in cities called Wilmington but in different states, as they entered the final sprint to 3 November.
Declaring reopening schools “a national emergency” as he spoke in his home town, Wilmington, Delaware, Biden demanded: “Mr President, where are you? Where are you? Why aren’t you working on this? We need emergency support funding for our schools and we need it now. Mr President, that’s your job, that’s your job.”
He added: “That’s what you should be focused on now, getting our kids back to school safely, keeping schools safely able to remain open once they open. Not whipping up fear and division, not inciting violence in our streets.
“Get off Twitter and start talking to the congressional leaders in both parties. Invite them to the Oval Office. You always talk about your ability to negotiate. Negotiate a deal. A deal for somebody other than yourself.”
Biden, who also announced plans to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Thursday amid the ongoing unrest over racial injustice and policing, said he believes the police officer who shot Jacob Blake “needs to be charged”. Blake, a young Black man, remains gravely injured after he was shot seven times in the back by police.
Biden also called for charges in the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed in her Louisville, Kentucky, home by police in March. Biden did not name specific charges and said authorities must conduct full investigations.
Trump was in Wilmington, North Carolina, for ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the second world war.
Showcasing the symbolic power on an incumbent president, Trump marked his visit to a battleground state with a speech in front of battleship. His remarks mostly concerned the creation of the first “American World War II Heritage City”, but he included a reference to his key campaign theme.
“American warriors did not defeat fascism and oppression overseas only to watch our freedoms be trampled by violent mobs here at home,” Trump said.
The vast majority of protests have been peaceful. Those that have turned violent have involved factions from either side of the political divide.
“These people only know one thing,” Trump said, “and that’s strength. That’s all they know, strength.”
Across the US this week, more than six months into the pandemic, millions of children have been unable to attend school in person, forcing them to undergo virtual learning and leaving parents struggling to get out to work. Democrats believe the issue hits home with every parent and could prove more important than Trump’s frequent distractions.
The president has urged schools to fully reopen, even threatening to cut federal funding to those that refuse, while he and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, have asserted that children are virtually immune to the virus. Scott Atlas, Trump’s new coronavirus adviser, has described schools as “a low-risk environment” and claimed “there is virtually zero risk of death” for children.
But the New York Times reported this week: “As some schools begin in-person classes, data compiled by the American Academy of Pediatrics from the summer show that cases, hospitalisations and deaths from the coronavirus have increased at a faster rate in children and teenagers than among the general public.”
Teachers have threatened to strike, over the risk to their health.
Biden and his wife, Jill, a longtime teacher, received a briefing on Wednesday from public health and education experts.
“Let me be clear,” he said. “If President Trump and his administration had done their jobs America’s schools would be open. Instead, America’s families are paying the price for his failures.”
The former vice-president criticised the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) for announcing that it will not help pay for basic sanitation supplies, cloth masks and other protective equipment.
“This is an emergency, Mr President, this is an emergency, and Donald Trump and his Fema should treat it as one.”
If Biden were president, he said, he would direct Fema to guarantee full access to disaster relief and emergency assistance for schools and to work with congressional leaders immediately to pass an emergency package.
America now has more than 6m coronavirus infections and 185,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 16 million are out of work. Yet last month’s Republican convention hailed Trump’s response and implied the pandemic was a thing of the past, Trump delivering his acceptance speech to an almost entirely mask-free crowd.
Leading federal public health experts continue to warn that Covid-19 is not under control, even as Trump repeatedly asserts the virus will disappear.
Greeting supporters in North Carolina, the president criticised Biden, claiming he did not mention “law and order” or “police” in remarks earlier this week.
Polls suggest the Republican convention, and scenes of civil unrest in Kenosha and Portland have enabled Trump to narrow the gap on Biden. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll showed Biden at 50% and Trump at 43% nationally. However, the Biden campaign announced it raised $364.5m in August, believed to be the highest total ever raised by a presidential candidate in a single month.
The campaign also said Biden would travel to Kenosha on Thursday, for a community meeting “to bring together Americans to heal and address the challenges we face”. The former vice-president is likely to emphasise racial injustice, in stark contrast to Trump’s pro-police message in the city on Tuesday.
The former vice president said he plans to meet in Kenosha with civic and business leaders and law enforcement. He also will meet with members of the Blake family; he’s already talked with some of them by phone.
Asked by reporters how he would curb outbreaks of violence, Biden said: “First of all, I wouldn’t incite violence. I’d condemn it when it occurred … This president keeps throwing gasoline on the fire every place he goes … I wish he’d take responsibility.
“As much as he’d like to be running against somebody else, he’s running against me, Joe Biden, and the fact is that he is not acting very responsibly.”
