Trump claims Biden coddles criminals. Biden needs an answer

Joe Biden and his partners in crime are coming for you, President Donald J. Trump darkly warned Thursday as he accepted the 2020 Republican presidential nomination.

The former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee is ignoring the violence rocking American cities, Trump claims.

“When there is police misconduct, the justice system must hold wrongdoers fully and completely accountable, and it will. But what we can never have in America — and must never allow — is mob rule,” he warned in his speech on the White House lawn. “In the strongest possible terms, the Republican Party condemns the rioting, looting, arson and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago and New York.”

The claim that Biden is coddling criminals will be a centerpiece of Trump’s fall campaign.

“This election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life, or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it,” Trump exhorted.

Cities nationwide have been galvanized by peaceful protests this summer, led by Black Lives Matter and other social justice groups demanding equity.

Those are noble efforts. They could backfire.

Chicago’s protests have been marred by two rounds of destructive looting and street violence this year. Up the road in Kenosha, protests of the police shooting of Jacob Blake were coupled with looting, vandalism and gun violence.

Biden is presiding over a wobbly balancing act. Democrats are championing the call for racial justice while eschewing the violence. They accuse Trump of exploiting these turbulent times with a cynical law-and-order appeal to win the White House.

Democrats cannot let America’s march to justice be hijacked by anarchists, thugs, opportunists and vigilantes.

The November election will turn on small slices of the vote in a few swing states. Voters may be tired of Trump’s lying incompetence but even more wary of cities reeling out of control.

In the swing state of Wisconsin, a series of polls by Marquette Law School suggest public support for the Black Lives Matter movement and its causes may be ebbing.

In a June poll, 59% of respondents said they approved of the Black Lives Matter, while 27% disapproved.

In a survey conducted Aug. 4-9, only 49% approved of BLM, compared with 37% who viewed it unfavorably.

The 24-7 coverage of anarchy in our streets plays right into Trump’s hands.

On Aug. 26, journalist Dylan Brogan posted a video on Twitter that displayed the aftermath of looting in Madison, Wisconsin, which also saw protests over the Blake shooting.

It depicted the window of a Papa John’s pizza storefront, smashed to smithereens. A man who appears to be an employee leans out over piles of shattered glass and yells at protesters, “Do you want Trump to be re-elected? Are they trying to get Trump re-elected?”

“Seriously, I got a family to support,” he cries.

Trump is talking to him. He is speaking to all the workers, business owners, city and suburban dwellers who are terrified of losing their livelihoods and lives to bottle-throwing thugs and thieving looters.

He is talking to suburban women who may embrace racial justice from behind their picket fences but will wonder: Will Joe Biden protect me and my children from the criminals who could invade my own back yard?

So far, Biden and Co. don’t have much of an answer.

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