In an editorial written for The Atlantic magazine on Sunday, former U.S. vice-president Joe Biden addresses the racial tension in the country following the deadly protests in Charlottesville, Va.
While Biden acknowledges that battles with “neo-Nazis and Klansmen” have been fought throughout America’s history, he says this period distinguishes itself because of the actions of the current U.S. president, Donald Trump.
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“Today we have an American president who has publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and Klansmen and those who would oppose their venom and hate. We have an American president who has emboldened white supremacists with messages of comfort and support,” writes Biden.
Trump was widely criticized following the Charlottesville rallies for failing to condemn neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups. Trump’s first comments on the riots indicated that both sides (white nationalists and counter-protesters) played an equal role in the violence that took place.
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During a press briefing about the rallies at his New Jersey golf course, Trump told reporters that “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”
In addition, Trump asked a reporter, ““What about the alt-left that came charging at the, as you say, the alt-right? Do they have any semblance of guilt?”
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Biden went on to criticize Trump for his decision to pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio “who terrorized the Latino community, violated its constitutional rights, defied a federal court order to stop and ran a prison system so rife with torture and abuse he himself called it a ‘concentration camp.'”
Ultimately, however, Biden remained hopeful for the future of the United States of America, arguing that in the aftermath of Charlottesville “America’s moral conscience began to stir.”
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He acknowledged those who spoke out against hatred and violence in the days following the protests and commemorated the group of University Virginia students who counter-protested the white nationalists the night before the rally, despite being vastly outnumbered.
He concludes by reiterating his hope for the citizens of the U.S., because “when it has mattered most, they have never let this nation down.”
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