U.S. President Donald Trump fired back at Joe Biden after the former vice president sharply criticised his use of a Washington DC church as part of his announcement that he was deploying U.S. military assets to combat protesters in the capital city.
"Sleepy Joe has been in politics for 40 years, and did nothing. Now he pretends to have the answers. He doesn’t even know the questions," the president tweeted about six hours after Biden gave one of the first major speeches of the 2020 general election.
That came in response to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee saying in a speech on Tuesday morning in Philadelphia that the president needs to care "for all of us, not just those who voted for [him]", The Independent reported.
"The president held up the Bible at St John’s church. I wish he’d open it once in a while instead of brandishing it," Biden said. "If he did, he’d see that we’re all called to love each other like we love ourselves. It’s hard work but it’s the work of America."
But the president later tweeted that "weakness will never beat anarchists, looters or thugs, and Joe has been politically weak all of his life," adding the phrase that he has used to describe himself, his presidency and his preferred mindset to end the sometimes violent protests in response to a black man’s death under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis: "LAW & ORDER!"
Mass protests and broke out in Minnesota and other U.S. states after a video of Floyd’s May 25 detention was posted online. Floyd, suspected of paying with counterfeit money at a local shop, was handcuffed by a white police officer, who put him to the ground and pressed his knee firmly against his neck. Floyd pleaded that he cannot breathe, but the police ignored him. Floyd died at the local hospital, shortly after the incident. The four arresting police officers were fired on May 26. One of them - Derek Chauvin, the officer who had his knee on Floyd - was arrested on Friday afternoon and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.
