Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, leading the polls, will he take advantage of the anger which agitates several American cities after the assassination of George Floyd, to regain the upper hand?
For more than two months, the Democratic candidate remained confined to his home. On Monday, he operated on his second outing when Trump is omnipresent and performs without health protection. Joe Biden struggles to be heard in the media, obsessed with the ravages of Covid 19, the disastrous economic consequences of the pandemic, and the erratic management of the Republican President.
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Donald Trump’s rival resumes his campaign after two months of viral hibernation. On Monday, we saw him walking the streets of his small town of Wilmington, a visible mask on his face. His words first pointed to the ethnic divide revealed by the pandemic
“The plaster that masked inequality and racism was torn off by this pandemic and this president “, said Joe Biden. It must be said that coronavirus kills black patients disproportionately in certain regions of the United States.
The words of a president are important
As America ignites after the death of George Floyd last week in Minneapolis, Joe Biden has taken up the subject of racism. Before fifteen religious and political leaders, the vast majority black, the former right-hand man of Barack Obama had harsh words towards Donald Trump: “Hatred only hides. It does not disappear. And when someone in power blows hatred under the rocks, it comes out. The words of a president are important. ”
He accused Donald Trump of pitting the Americans against each other, and of sending the army against peaceful protesters to make “com”.
“He uses the American army against the Americans. He sends tear gas against peaceful demonstrators and shoots rubber bullets. For a photo “, tweeted the former US vice president.
Donald Trump announced the deployment of “thousands of heavily armed soldiers” and police in Washington, saying the unrest in the federal capital was “a disgrace.”
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Institutional racism and white supremacy: two American plagues
Joe Biden has repeatedly denounced the death of George Floyd and the “institutional racism and white supremacy” that plague the United States. But he also called for calm and condemned the violence.
“The fact is that we need this anger to move through the pain, “but” indignation cannot justify the unnecessary destruction caused by eruptions of violence “, did he declare. “We are a nation that is suffering right now, but we must not let that suffering destroy us.“
►►► Read also : African American man killed in Minneapolis: are all American police racist?
Which makes some say that Joe Biden does not radically differentiate himself from his Republican rival vis-à-vis the demonstrators.
At least that’s what Norman Ajari, doctor of philosophy and professor at Villanova University in Philadelphia, thinks: “So far the Democratic candidate has refused to embrace the black protest. Instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to become one with this popular revolt which, certainly carries a radical word, but which is a word essential to American life, he decides to condemn the demonstrators, he decides to lecture them, to lecture them, and in so doing, he delegitimizes them, and he plays the game of Trump who has exactly the same speech but in a more muscular version. The democratic position today is just a lukewarm version, a softened version, a tempered version of Trump’s speech. “
A black vice president at the White House?
Joe Biden, who was vice-president of Barack Obama for eight years, is very popular with black Americans, a key electorate for any Democratic candidate hoping to win the American presidential election. Several African American officials are now urging him to choose a black running mate.
If elected, it would be the first time that a black woman has sat in the White House alongside the President. But Joe Biden remains elusive, just stating that several black candidates were on his list.
Trump going to stumble on pandemic and street anger?
The burning question: will the Democratic candidate take advantage of the double crisis caused by the pandemic and the assassination of Georges Floyd to consolidate his ascendancy over his Republican rival?
At first glance, the answer is yes. Joe Biden is 6 points ahead of Trump, or even 8, sources said. The economy is collapsing, with the emergence of a cohort of 40 million unemployed. A crisis worthy of the Great Depression is looming. And then, the President’s hate belching begins to tire the Americans.
Opposite, despite some blunders, Joe Biden appears as a calm, honest, and experienced candidate.
Anyway, for Allan Katz, a professor of political science in Missouri, the majority of Americans have already made a religion about the two men, and there is little risk that they will change their mind.
“You have 35% to 40% of Americans who would vote Trump even if he was shooting someone in the middle of 5th avenue. And opposite, 50% of Americans, or a little more, who would not vote for him, even if he announced a universal cancer treatment tomorrow! As for Biden, there is a big difference with Hillary Clinton (Donald Trump’s rival Democrat in 2016 ed.) Nobody hates Joe Biden, nobody “Afraid of him. While in 2016, Republicans who didn’t like Donald Trump ended up voting for him because they couldn’t stand Clinton.”
A senile old man, a pedophile, sold to China
Donald Trump is ready to do anything to discredit his 77-year-old rival. The lowest, most violent attacks. All shots are allowed. A photo montage posted on Facebook shows the Democratic candidate wrapped up in a wheelchair, decrepit, drooling and spoon-fed.
But the real Achilles heel of De Biden is her son, Hunter, compromised in dubious business in Ukraine and China. This could destabilize the Democratic candidate, especially if Vladimir Putin flies to the aid of Trump by providing him with compromising documents.
As for the Trumpian argument of “China responsible for the global pandemic”, it is not likely to hit the target. According to a Morning Consult survey, 38% of Americans follow Trump in this accusation, compared to 40% who trust Biden more.
This Tuesday Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a long-awaited speech in Philadelphia. He will have to find a delicate balance between empathy towards the African-American minority, the justness of his anger, while avoiding accepting the violence caused by this anger.
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