Joe Biden visits George Floyd protest sites in Delaware
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden emerged from his basement over the weekend to observe his city, following days of raucous protests.
The former vice president was seen Sunday touring Wilmington, Delaware, the morning after protests overtook the city in response to the murder of George Floyd, assessing the damage to local businesses and meeting other residents.
The 2020 hopeful was joined during his unannounced visit by Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), with whom he toured small businesses that had been damaged and met with local business owners.
“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,” a quote attributed to Biden read on Instagram.
“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,” he continued.
The presidential candidate also shared a video on his Instagram story showing him taking pictures with three young men while walking around the state’s largest city in the aftermath of the demonstrations.
“You gotta get that crazy guy out of office, Biden,” one of the men could be heard saying. “Save us, save us. Please, save us.”
Protests and riots erupted across the nation over the weekend in a show of outrage against the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis last week.
Floyd, 46, could be heard in video of the killing pleading that he could not breathe while being pinned down by since-fired Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for over eight minutes.
In Wilmington, demonstrations initially appeared peaceful, until some protesters began looting small businesses.
The 2020 Democrat appeared to denounce the violence in a statement Sunday, saying, “The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest. It should not drive people away from the just cause that protest is meant to advance.”
Biden’s appearance marked the second time he had been out in public since the coronavirus pandemic forced the 77-year-old presidential candidate to begin campaigning indoors.
Last week, he and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, visited Delaware Memorial Bridge Veterans Memorial Park to pay their respects on Memorial Day, laying a wreath of white flowers and bowing their heads in silence while wearing black masks.
