UPDATE: Biden's speech was about 14 minutes and covered a gamut of areas where Donald Trump has failed. Here are some key quotes, via the pool report:
“Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple."
“These are images of Donald Trump's America today. He keeps telling you if only he was president, it wouldn't happen ... He keeps telling you, if he was president you'd feel safe. Well, he is president, whether he knows it or not."
“You know me. You know my heart, and you know my story, my family’s story. Ask yourself: Do I look to you like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really??"
“Our current president wants you to live in fear. He advertises himself as a figure of order. He isn’t.”
“This is a sitting president of the United States of America. He's supposed to be protecting this country, but instead he's rooting for chaos and violence. The simple truth is Donald Trump failed to protect America, so now he's trying to scare America."
Biden also attacked Trump over Russia offering bounties for killing American and coalition troops in Afghanistan, saying: “Never before has an American president played such a subservient role to a Russian leader. It's not only dangerous, it's humiliating and embarrassing for the rest of the world to see. It weakens us."
The full text of his speech is here.
The Biden campaign released excerpts of today's address and it looks like a barnburner.
This president long ago forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can’t stop the violence – because for years he has fomented it.
He may believe mouthing the words law and order makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows you how weak he is.
Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?
We need justice in America. And we need safety in America.
We are facing multiple crises – crises that, under Donald Trump, keep multiplying.
COVID.
Economic devastation.
Unwarranted police violence.
Emboldened white nationalists.
A reckoning on race.
Declining faith in a bright American future.
The common thread?
An incumbent president who makes things worse, not better.
An incumbent president who sows chaos rather than providing order.
