"I can't breathe," Vice President Joe Biden began in a powerful and presidential speech Tuesday morning in Philadelphia. "I can't breathe. George Floyd's last words, but they didn't die with him." The Democratic candidate for president spoke as a president would to a nation reeling from the novel coronavirus and the upheaval in the aftermath of the back-to-back murders by cops of unarmed Black men and women. Floyd's words, he said, "speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus and 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment—with a disproportionate number of these deaths and job losses concentrated in the Black and minority communities."
He took on Trump for the offensive and divisive stunt he pulled Monday evening when he invaded and occupied St. John's Episcopal Church. "The president held up the Bible at St. John's Church yesterday," Biden said in a speech in Philadelphia. "I just wish he opened it once in a while instead of brandishing it. If he opened it, he could have learned something." He continued: "When peaceful protesters are dispersed by the order of the president from the doorstep of the people's house, the White House—using tear gas and flash grenades—in order to stage a photo op at a noble church, we can be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than in principle," Biden said.
He forwarded critical policy prescriptions including federal legislation banning chokeholds, banning the transfer of military weapons to police departments, and the creation of a "model use-of-force standard," but also calling on Congress to "act now" to address the disproportionate impact the coronavirus is having on Black and brown populations by directing emergency funding to those communities. He also called for an expansion of the Affordable Care Act from Congress, and for the Trump administration to end its suit against the law.
"I promise you this," Biden continued. "I won't traffic in fear and division. I won't fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country—not use them for political gain,” Biden pledged. "I'll do my job and take responsibility. I won't blame others. I'll never forget that the job isn't about me. It's about you. And I'll work to not only rebuild this nation. But to build it better than it was."