-Accepts Republican Party’s re-nomination as Vice President
DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON: US Vice President Mike Pence echoed President Donald Trump’s “law and order” message in his speech accepting the Republican Party’s renomination Wednesday night amid rekindled anger over police brutality and racism in the country.
“My fellow Americans, we are passing through a time of testing. But in the midst of this global pandemic, just as our nation had begun to recover, we’ve seen violence and chaos in the streets of our major cities,” Pence said from Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.
“Let me be clear: the violence must stop whether in Minneapolis, Portland, or Kenosha,” the vice president continued. “We will have law and order on the streets of America.”
The remarks came as protests and riots raged on in Kenosha, Wisconsin in the wake of the Aug. 23 police shooting of 29-year-old African American Jacob Blake, who was shot several times in the back at close range in response to a reported domestic incident. Blake’s father has said his son is now paralyzed from the waist down.
Pence didn’t specifically mention the shooting of Blake but went on doubling down the administration’s support of law enforcement agencies.
The Kenosha shooting also came some three months after George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American man, died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
His death sparked weeks-long protests and social unrest across the United States and has led to a nationwide reckoning over police brutality and racism. But efforts to move reforms on policing forward have stalled on Capitol Hill, as Democrats and Republicans stand divided over political priorities.
With the message, Pence also swiped at former U.S. Vice President and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who has made race relations a key part of his White House bid. Biden has said he supports police reform but not the movement to “defund the police.”
“Last week, Joe Biden didn’t say one word about the violence and chaos engulfing cities across this country,” said Pence, referring to Biden’s acceptance speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
Biden, whom voters appear to trust more than Trump in handling race relations, denounced both the police shooting of Blake and violent protests and looting on Wednesday. “Once again, a Black man Jacob Blake was shot by the police. In front of his children. It makes me sick,” he tweeted.
