Biden Tries To Flip The Script, Asking ‘Are You Safe In Trump’s America?’

The speech will intertwine the country’s coronavirus death toll and subsequent economic downturn with allegations by Democrats that Trump has a tendency to “fan the flames of division and encourage chaos in our cities.”

Biden, by contrast, will pitch himself as someone who can “calm tensions and heal this country,” a departure from Trump’s more bombastic style which the Biden campaign says will paint a “different vision for a better future in Joe Biden’s America.”

The event comes after Biden issued his most forceful condemnation yet of protest violence, stating that he “unequivocally” denounces violence on both the left and right and challenging Trump to do the same.

“The job of the President is to lower the temperature,” the statement said, accusing Trump of “fanning the flames of hate” and of a “failure to call on his supporters to stop seeking conflict.”

This messaging is a direct response to Trump and Republicans, who spent much of the GOP Convention lambasting Biden as soft on crime – with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence declaring, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America” – and have been hammering Biden for not offering strong enough condemnations of protest violence.

The introduction of coronavirus to the narrative also allows Biden to seize on one of Trump’s greatest vulnerabilities; as the U.S. death toll nears 180,000, Trump’s approval on the virus remains underwater by nearly 20 points in the RealClearPolitics average.