Biden: We must ‘uphold American values’ in light of Trump rhetoric

Former Vice President Joe Biden is calling for supporters to “uphold America’s values” amid what he said was President Trump’s divisive rhetoric on controversial issues.

“Folks, it’s up to us now to do what our president has not: Uphold America’s values. Defend our constitution,” Biden said in a statement released Thursday. “Say, full-throated and together, ‘This is not who we are.'”

Biden took aim at a number of Trump’s most high-profile and widely criticized comments, including his remarks that there were “very fine people” among white-supremacist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va., and that “both sides” shared blame for the violence there last month.

“Every week, it’s something new,” Biden said. 

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The former vice president also suggested Trump has been too preoccupied with bashing the NFL over its players’ protests during the national anthem to effectively lead the federal government’s emergency response to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. 

“A president who cares more about dismantling his predecessors’ achievements than ensuring tens of millions of Americans know the security of health insurance — one who threatens our global standing on a weekly basis with his careless actions and his words,” Biden said. 

“We have to build, too. And that starts with electing leaders and representatives who will actually lead and represent us,” Biden said. “I’m fighting like hell for as long as I can stand to make sure this country once again lives up to its highest ideals. Join me to today.” 

The vice president’s statement was sent out to solicit donations for American Possibilities, a political action committee he founded earlier this summer in an effort to support Democratic candidates for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. 

Biden’s PAC fueled speculation that the 74-year-old, who has twice run for the White House, may run for president against Trump in 2020.