Donald Trump fired back at Joe Biden after the former vice president sharply criticised his use of a Washington, DC, church as part of his announcement that he was deploying US military assets to combat protesters in the capital city.
"Sleepy Joe has been in politics for 40 years, and did nothing. Now he pretends to have the answers. He doesn't even know the questions," the president tweeted about six hours after Mr Biden gave one of the first major speeches of the 2020 general election.
That came in response to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee saying in a speech Tuesday morning in Philadelphia that the president needs to care "for all of us, not just those who voted for [him]."
"The president held up the Bible at St. John's church. I wish he'd open it once in awhile instead of brandishing it," Mr Biden said. "If he did, he'd see that we're all called to love each other like we love ourselves. It's hard work but it's the work of America."
But the president later tweeted that "weakness will never beat anarchists, looters or thugs, and Joe has been politically weak all of his life," adding the phrase that he has used to describe himself, his presidency and his preferred mindset to end the sometimes-violent protests in response to a black man's death under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis: "LAW & ORDER!"
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