US elections: Biden rebukes Trump and distances himself from violence, ‘radical left’

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden delivered one of his most scathing attacks against US President Donald Trump Monday as he attempted to play down claims of being a “radical socialist.”

Trump and the Republican party have long accused Biden and the Democratic ticket of being part of the “radical left.”

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Violent protests broke out at the beginning of the summer following the police killing of a Black man. Several other police killings ensued, and the Black Lives Matter movement started across the US and other parts of the world.

“Do I look like a radical socialist that has a soft spot for rioters?” Biden asked, in a rare public appearance since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Members of Antifa pass a fountain during an alt-right rally in Portland, Oregon. (File photo: AFP)

Stores have been looted and police buildings have been set ablaze in protests that turned violent.

Biden said he was against the violence and called for the prosecution of those taking part in it.

“Violence will not bring change and it divides,” Biden said during his speech from Pittsburgh.

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He is scheduled to make several stops in battleground states this week.

Biden also accused Trump of being “a toxic presence” in the US and “poisoning the way we talk to each other.”

The former Vice President said that he would keep America safe “from four more years of Donald Trump,” who he said failed to condemn right-wing militias and white supremacists.

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Trump's campaign quickly hit back at Biden. “He [Biden] failed to condemn people who called the police a ‘cancer’ or people on his campaign staff who called them ‘pigs,’” Tim Murtaugh, communications director for Trump 2020, said.

“You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” Murtaugh added.