Biden to visit Kenosha on Thursday

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife Jill will visit Kenosha, Wis., this Thursday as the city grapples with the fallout of days of unrest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

The Biden campaign said in a press release that the former vice president will “hold a community meeting in Kenosha to bring together Americans to heal and address the challenges we face” and then “make a local stop.” 

Further details of the trip were not immediately available.

It will be Biden’s first trip to the crucial swing state of Wisconsin this year and will come just days after President Trump toured parts of Kenosha. The city has been roiled by protests that erupted after Blake was shot in the back seven times last month in front of his three children by a white police officer.

Protests erupted in the city of approximately 100,000 late last month after video of Blake’s shooting went viral. Many of the protests have remained peaceful, though some have devolved into looting and clashes with law enforcement and right-wing counter-protesters.

Tensions were significantly ratcheted up after a 17-year-old from Illinois allegedly traveled to the city with a military-style rifle and shot three protesters, killing two. Charges against the teenager include first-degree homicide.

Trump has seized on the protests in Kenosha, Portland, Ore., and other cities to promote a fierce “law and order” message, saying looting and destruction would only be exacerbated under a Biden presidency.

“These left-wing rioters are Joe Biden supporters trashing cities run by Democrats who support his candidacy,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said this week. “He has repeatedly given them cover by excusing their violence by calling them ‘peaceful protestors’ and accusing law enforcement of ‘stoking the fires of division’ … it’s almost impossible to tell where his campaign ends and Antifa begins. You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”

Trump’s visit to Wisconsin on Tuesday and his dark message around the protests have only compounded handwringing from Democrats that Biden is not making enough stops in key states in the final sprint to the November election and has started ceding the issue to the president.

Wisconsin is expected to be one of the most heavily contested swing states in the presidential race this cycle after Trump won there by less than 1 percent in 2016.

Biden has looked to amplify his message on the protests this week, giving a speech in Pennsylvania, another key swing state, on Monday and releasing an ad Wednesday that condemns rioting and violence.

“I want to make it absolutely clear rioting is not protesting, looting is not protesting,” the former vice president said in remarks from his speech that were played in the ad’s opening. “It’s lawlessness, plain and simple, and those that do it should be prosecuted.”

Biden has also sought to lay blame for the violence at Trump’s feet, noting the president’s rhetoric on racial issues and comments in recent weeks in which he declined to condemn the alleged teenage shooter in Kenosha.

“If I were president, my language would be less divisive,” Biden said in the new ad. “I’d be looking to lower the temperature in this country, not raise it.”

“This is not who we are,” he added. “I believe we’ll be guided by the words of Pope John Paul II, words drawn from the scriptures, ‘Be not afraid.’”

Still, Republicans are confident a “law and order” message is a winning one for the president.

“I think highlighting that the federal government has done a lot in the way of using law and order to create peace, but showing up for hurting Americans is the primary concern,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said before Trump’s visit this week.

–This report was updated at 11:35 a.m.