Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden visited Kenosha, Wisconsin two days after President Donald Trump‘s visit. On Thursday, Biden and his wife Jill met with the family of Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old black man shot and paralyzed by the police, in Milwaukee and talked to the man through a phone call.
“He talked about how noting was going to defeat him, how whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up,” Biden said of his phone call with Blake.
Blake’s family and representatives appreciated the Bidens’ meeting with them.
“He wasn’t just there for comfort. He was there for a purpose, and I appreciate that,” Letetra Wideman, Blake’s sister, told CNN.
Blake’s attorney, Ben Crump, released a statement on the Bidens’ visit over Twitter. According to the statement, the Blakes and the Bidens discussed the need for systemic reform. “It was very obvious that Vice President Biden cared, as he extended to Jacob Jr. a sense of humanity, treating him as a person worthy of consideration and prayer,” said Crump.
After the visit to the Blakes, the Bidens headed to the Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha for a community event to address the protests, the violence and the racial injustice. Joe Biden condemned the looting, but was firm on his stance on fixing racial injustice.
“I promise you, win or lose, I’m going to go down fighting. I’m going to go down fighting for racial equality – equity across the board,” Biden said.
This was a counterpoint to Trump’s own statements on Tuesday, in which he did not properly acknowledge a reporter’s question where systemic racism is a problem in the United States.
“You just keep getting back to the opposite subject,” the president said. “We should talk about the kind of violence we’ve seen in Portland and here and other places.”
Biden’s visit to Kenosha is his first campaign appearance in the Midwest area since the coronavirus pandemic worsened in March. The event followed the guidelines for social distancing and wearing masks.
