President Donald Trump vehemently rebutted Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s description of the current period as the “darkest moments” in American history.
“Joe Biden grimly declared a season of American darkness,” he said. “Where Joe Biden sees American darkness, I see American greatness.”
Biden, who served for 36 years as a U.S. Senator and 8 years as vice president under former President Barack Obama, alleged that America is in a gloomy situation under Trump’s presidency.
“The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division,” he said during his acceptance speech on Thursday.
“Four historic crises. All at the same time. A perfect storm,” he said. “The worst pandemic in over 100 years. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most compelling call for racial justice since the 60s. And the undeniable realities and accelerating threats of climate change.”
Trump touted his economic accomplishments before the outbreak and said the economy will have a “super V” recovery from the economic aftermath of the plague.
“Look at what’s happening and look at how we’re shooting up. We call it a ’super V.‘ It’s no longer a ’V‘; it’s a ’super V,’” he said.
He also praised the responses from healthcare workers, the legislative branch, and businesses to deal with the plague.
“We’ve seen heroic doctors and nurses racing into action to save lives. We’ve seen first responders helping strangers in need. We’ve seen the passage of historic legislation to save 50 million American jobs. We’ve mobilized American industry like never before,” he said.
The president—who is apparently gaining strong support from law enforcement departments around the country amid a wave of protests and riots after the death of George Floyd and discussion of defunding the police—criticized Biden for not talking about law enforcement and reducing crime in Democrat-run cities.
In response to the climate change crisis mentioned by Biden, Trump emphasized how he has released the potentials of the United States energy sector through deregulation and withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord since he came to the White House.
“It was the most successful period of time in the history of our country, from every standard,” he said.
Posing as a moderate Democrat, Biden proposed an economic plan with apparent overlap with Trump’s. However, Democrats and Republicans show a sharp divergence in various policies.
The Democrats lean toward shutting down states or localities as long as necessary to control the spread of the CCP virus outbreak, while Trump and other Republicans want a balance between the handling of the plague and economic health.
Amid racial tensions after the death of Floyd and riots in big cities around the country, the Democrats rallied behind the Black Lives Matter movement. Prominent Democrats including Pelosi, Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senator and now Democratic vice president nominee Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) knelt for over eight minutes in the Capitol Visitor Center wearing African stoles of kente cloth, similar to those frequently used by Black Lives Matter activists.
However, Trump is a strong supporter of police officers. He took actions along with his attorney general William Barr and acting homeland secretary Chad Wolf to restore “law and order.”
Barr sent federal officers to several cities with high crime rates and arrested nearly 1,500 people, charging over 200 of them. Wolf sent federal officers to Portland, Oregon, to protect federal properties and deal with the rioters and anarchists.
