Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, your daily rundown on all the latest news in the 2020 presidential, Senate and House races. Did someone forward …
Welcome to The Hill’s Campaign Report, your daily rundown on all the latest news in the 2020 presidential, Senate and House races. Did someone forward this to you? Click here to subscribe.
We’re Julia Manchester, Max Greenwood and Jonathan Easley. Here’s what we’re watching today on the campaign trail.
LEADING THE DAY:
The political world is reacting to the demonstrations taking place in Minneapolis this week in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died Monday after a police officer knelt on his neck during an arrest.
President Trump made headlines on Friday after he threatened on Twitter to deploy the military and denounced «thugs» in the midwestern city. Twitter labeled the president’s post, saying the tweet violated the platform’s rules about glorifying violence.
Trump’s rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, was quick to denounce the tweet, accusing Trump of calling for violence.
“I will not give him that amplification. But he is calling for violence against American citizens during a moment of pain for so many,” Biden said in a tweet.
The White House denied Trump was glorifying violence, and said he condemned it.
The week’s events involving Floyd’s death and the subsequent protests have put the spotlight once again on police violence and racial tensions in the U. S. The issue will likely be widely talked about on the campaign trail, with many in the U. S. calling for police reform and nationwide conversation about race.
Biden said Friday in an online address to supporters that he spoke to George Floyd’s family.
«We are a country with an open wound. And none of us can turn away. None of us can be silent. None of us can any longer, can we hear the words ‘I can’t breath’ and do nothing,» Biden said. «The original sin of this country still stains our nation today, and sometimes we manage to overlook it.”
The Hill’s Amie Parnes and Scott Wong report that the death of Floyd and the subsequent protests has also prompted greater scrutiny over Biden’s vice presidential pick.
“I think this definitely makes him think twice and a third time about it,” one longtime Biden ally close to the campaign told Parnes and Wong.
