Biden Visits Protest Site While Trump Endorses Violent Pushback

The difference between the two presidential candidates played out in stark contrast on Sunday.

While was using social media to share a message of understanding, acknowledging the country’s pain, President Trump used the same medium to endorse a call for violence in response to the protests raging across the nation.

The Democratic candidate shared a photo of himself in Wilmington, Del., where he said there were protests the night before. Biden wrote in posts across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram about how the country needs to turn its “anguish to purpose.”

“We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us,” Biden wrote.

Biden continued, “The only way to bear this pain is to turn all that anguish to purpose. And as President, I will help lead this conversation — and more importantly, I will listen, just as I did today visiting the site of last night’s protests in Wilmington.”

Conversely, Trump took to Twitter and retweeted someone who seemingly labeled all of the demonstrators as “bad guys” and advocated for violence from “good guys” to put a stop to the protests, while ignoring the many instances of police acting violently.

“This isn’t going to stop until the good guys are willing to use overwhelming force against the bad guys” the tweet read.

Trump has no real answers for the protests and, according to a report from CNN, his top aides are divided over how to advise him. So, he’s left to his default position of pointing fingers to curry support from his most fervent allies. He has leaned on hate and division ever since he descended down the escalator to announce his candidacy when he lied about Mexican immigrants to encourage racists to join his side. His lack of ability, or desire, to pull people together during a crisis is damaging—especially with the pandemic—and it continues with his rhetoric about the protests. Fear and anger feed his base but leave many lost in a time of need.