BALTIMORE--U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday cast the re-election of President Donald Trump as critical to preserving law and order and economic viability, warning Democratic rival Joe Biden was a stalking horse for the radical left.
Amid widening protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Wisconsin, Pence and other Republicans at their national convention described the Nov. 3 election between Trump and Biden as a choice between law-and-order and lawlessness.
"The hard truth is you won't be safe in Joe Biden's America," Pence said in a speech that capped the convention's third night.
Police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot Blake, 29, multiple times in the back at close range on Sunday, reigniting protests against racism and police brutality that erupted across the United States earlier in the year. Then during a third night of unrest on Tuesday, three people were shot, two fatally. A teenager was arrested on homicide charges. Authorities said he was a vigilante.
"Let me be clear: the violence must stop – whether in Minneapolis, Portland or Kenosha. Too many heroes have died defending our freedom to see Americans strike each other down. We will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race and creed and colour," Pence said.
Biden said earlier that he had spoken with Blake's family and, like the family, called for an end to the violence. But, unlike Trump who has yet to publicly comment on the police shooting, Biden called for justice and defended the right to protest.
"Protesting brutality is a right and absolutely necessary, but burning down communities is not protest. It's needless violence," Biden said in a video posted by his campaign.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump said he would send federal law enforcement to Kenosha by agreement with the state's governor while the U.S. Department of Justice said a federal civil rights investigation had been opened into the shooting.
