The Trump campaign and its law enforcement surrogates accused former Vice President Joseph R. Biden on Monday of being an “apologist” who refuses to condemn rioting and will be “led around by the nose” by leftist activists and undercut police who must grapple with the mayhem.
“He’ll still sit by. President Trump will act, and he has acted,” said Michael T. Slupe, the sheriff of Butler County, Pennsylvania. “These are not peaceful protesters. These are criminals.”
He also dinged Mr. Biden, vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris and their supporters over a bail fund set up for protesters after the initial protest in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis.
“If they committed a crime they committed a crime. Let justice prevail,” the sheriff said.
Patrick J. Lynch, president of the New York City Police Benevolent Association, repeatedly highlighted Democratic leadership in cities facing unrest and argued Mr. Biden wants a “soft touch” on crime instead of fully backing police officers.
“The police are put in the difficult position of clashing with these rioters,” Mr. Lynch said.
Their comments were a prebuttal to Mr. Biden’s plans to address the unrest in cities like Portland, Oregon, during an address in Pittsburgh later Monday.
The vice president will say Mr. Trump is incapable of quelling the unrest that is unfolding during his presidency and has decided to sow “chaos” instead of addressing it.
Mr. Biden was born in the Keystone State, which is viewed by both campaigns as a vital prize on Nov. 3.
“Pennsylvania is a key state. I was key in 2016 and it will be key in 2020,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.
Mr. Murtaugh said the president “has great confidence he will win it again.”
Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller charged that Mr. Biden is scheduling campaign trips because he is “rattled” and hitting the “panic button” over a tightening race and perceptions of the riots.
“This is the only reason that Joe Biden is leaving his Delaware basement,” Mr. Miller said.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly slammed Mr. Biden as soft on crime and beholden to far-left activists who want to “defund the police” to spread money around to other social priorities and programs.
At the same time, they’ve highlighted his support for a 1994 crime bill that’s been blamed for over-incarceration, contrasting it to Mr. Trump’s criminal justice reform effort.
Monday’s back-and-forth between the campaigns comes after a particularly violent weekend in which a member of a far-right group that formed a pro-Trump caravan was killed in a confrontation with Portland protesters.
Mr. Murtaugh rejected charges that Mr. Trump used retweets over the weekend to foment clashes, saying people should be free to voice support for the president without risking their lives.
“The president has never condoned violence of any kind,” Mr. Murtaugh said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.