Milwaukee, Oct 28: Asserting that anger and suspicion are growing in the country and wounds getting deeper, Democratic Party’s presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday said badly hit by the coronavirus, America needs a president that unites the countrymen and does not divide them.
At a gathering in Warm Springs, Georgia, a battleground state, Biden, 77, presented himself as a presidential candidate, committed to unite the county.
After his speech at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania early this month, this was Biden’s second major speech on “uniting” the country. He alleged President Donald Trump, who he is attempting to unseat in the November 3 presidential elections, has divided the country.
“Over these past few months, there has been so much pain, and so much suffering and so much loss in America. Over 225,000 people have lost their lives to a virus, many of those lives lost in the cruellest possibility — alone, alone, alone in a hospital room, alone in a nursing home — no family, no friends, no loved ones beside them in those final moments,” Biden said.
“And it haunts so many of the surviving families, families who were never given a chance to say goodbye. The tragic truth of our time is that COVID has left a deep and lasting wound in this country. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and we see the empty storefronts and the shuttered businesses — the visible signs of the lost hopes and broken dreams,” he rued.
Warm Springs in Georgia served as a retreat for Franklin Roosevelt during his time as president and is known for its therapeutic mineral springs.
Biden said a season of protest has broken out all across the nation.
“Some of it is just senseless burning and looting and violence that can’t be tolerated, and it won’t (be). But much of it is a cry for justice from a community that long had a knee of injustice on their necks. The names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake will not be forgotten soon — not by me, not by us and not by this country. They’re going to inspire a new wave of justice in America,” he said.
“These are historic, painful crises, the insidious virus, the economic anguish, the systematic discrimination, and one of them could have rocked the nation — any one of them — yet we’ve been hit by all three at once.
“But if we’re honest with ourselves, the pain striking at the heart of our country goes back months — not months, but years. Our politics for too long (has) been mean and bitter and divisive. You can hear it now in the distance. We’ve stopped seeing dignity in one another. We’ve stopped showing each other respect,” he said.
“Too many among us spend more time shouting than listening, more time fighting than working together, more time demonising and denigrating others than lifting them up. The divisions in our nation are getting wider,” said the former vice president.
“Angry people, upset. Anger and suspicion are growing, and our wounds are getting deeper. And many — many of them — wonder has it gone too far? Have we passed the point of no return? Has the heart of this nation turned to stone? I don’t think so. I refuse to believe it. I know this country. I know our people and I know we can unite and heal this nation,” Biden said.
The United States, he said, in an unmistakable attack on Trump, “needs a president who is not in it for himself but for others, a president who doesn’t divide us, but unites us, a president who appeals not to the worst in us, but to the best, a president who cares less about his TV ratings and more about the American people, a president who looks not to settle scores, but to find solutions, a president guided not by wishful thinking but by science, reason and fact”.
“That’s the kind of president I hope to be. I’m running as a proud Democrat but I will govern as an American president. I’ll work with Democrats and Republicans. I’ll work as hard for those who don’t support me as for those who do.
“That’s the job of a president — a duty of care for everyone. This place, Warm Springs, is a reminder that though broken, each of us can be healed, that as a people and a country we can overcome this devastating virus, that we can heal a suffering world, and yes, we can restore our soul and save our country,” he assured the audience.
Biden has been leading in both the national polls and that in the battleground States.
If voted to power, Biden said, he would clear the decks for action on the first day of his presidency to get COVID under control.
“We will act to pass my economic plan that will finally reward work, not wealth in this country. We will act to pass my health care plan to provide affordable, accessible healthcare for every American and drug prices that are dramatically lower,” he said.
“We will act to pass the Biden climate plan. Many of the challenges of the climate crisis while creating millions of good-paying, high-paying labour jobs. We will act to address systemic racism in our country. We will act to give working people a fair shot again in this country and we will act to restore our faith in democracy and our faith in one another,” he said.
“As president, I will never wave the white flag of surrender. Just imagine where we would be today if the president had embraced wearing masks instead of mocking it. Imagine where we would be today with a president who had practised social distancing instead of holding super spreader events. Imagine where we would be with a comprehensive system of testing and tracing,” Biden said. (PTI)
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