Biden says he’d consider going to Wisconsin

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Thursday that he would consider visiting Wisconsin as protests have continued in Kenosha after the police shooting of Jacob Blake. 

Biden told MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that he would consider traveling, but added he doesn’t “want to become a part of the problem” with the coronavirus pandemic and the spread of the virus. 

“I want to make sure that it’s able to be done safely,” the former vice president said, adding “If I were president, I’d be going.”

“If I went, what I’d be doing is try to pull together the Black community, as well as the white community, and sit down and talk and talk about how we get through this,” he added. 

Biden continued, saying “this is not about” all white people agreeing with white supremacy and all Black people agreeing with looting. 

“I don’t think that’s what Kenosha’s about. I don’t think that’s what Black and white America is about,” he said. “But that’s what’s being seen now, and it has to stop.”

Kenosha has seen four consecutive nights of protests after a video showed police shooting 29-year-old Blake at least seven times in the back as he walked around an SUV and opened the driver’s side door. 

Blake’s children were in the vehicle when he was shot, which has at least temporarily paralyzed him from the waist down. 

Tensions worsened this week when two people were fatally shot during the protests, leading to a 17-year-old white teenager from Illinois being arrested and charged with intentional homicide. 

Biden said he was “very concerned” about white militias, which the teenager appeared to be involved with, at the protests.

“This is not who we are,” he said. “This is not who America is. You want to bring about some order and safety and security for people, we have to start dealing with the real problems underlying all these issues.”

The Kenosha protests come months after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked racial justice protests around the world.