Biden adviser says campaign wants to avoid creating ‘tussle’ in Kenosha

Symone Sanders, a top adviser to Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign, said the former vice president will be visiting Wisconsin “very soon” but did not confirm that an event was scheduled for his campaign this week. 

When asked on CNN on Tuesday if Biden was planning on visiting Kenosha, Wis., this week, Sanders did not confirm if plans were in the works, though reports have emerged recently that the campaign decided against doing so. 

She said Tuesday that “he doesn’t want to do anything that would create a tussle on the ground.” 

President Trump’s trip to Kenosha will “pour gasoline on what is already a very tense situation,” Biden campaign senior adviser Symone Sanders says to @jimsciutto.

Sanders says Biden is “doing right now, frankly, what a president should be doing.” https://t.co/anx3opJA9x pic.twitter.com/yO4zIZw4xu

— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) September 1, 2020

She added that President Trump’s scheduled visit to Kenosha on Tuesday could lead to more violence after protests ensued there following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was shot seven times by a police officer. 

The shooting of Blake and the subsequent demonstrations have moved Wisconsin, an important election swing state, into the national spotlight in recent weeks. 

On the third night of demonstrations in Kenosha, two protesters were shot and killed and another was wounded. Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old suspected of the shooting, was later defended by Trump, who claimed that the teen acted in self-defense. 

Biden has condemned Trump for declining to condemn Rittenhouse’s alleged actions. 

“We have heard the president over the last couple of days, throughout the Republican National Convention, talk about violence,” Sanders said. “His tweets have stoked and incited this violence. So he’s not going to be a calming voice in Kenosha, Wis., today. He’s going to do nothing but fan the flames and pour gasoline on what is already a very tense situation.”  

“[Biden] is doing right now, frankly, what a president should be doing,” she continued. 

On Monday, Biden spoke in Pittsburgh where he said Trump has “long ago forfeited any moral leadership in this country.”

“He can’t stop the violence because for years he’s fomented it,” he added.