2020 Race: Joe Biden follows Donald Trump to Kenosha

Joe Biden said there had been ‘overwhelming requests’ for his visit which he planned to help ‘heal’ tensions in the country.

Joe Biden will visit the riot-damaged city of Kenosha on Friday (AEST) as both Democrats and Republicans launched duelling law and order campaigns across the Midwest with new national polls showing Mr Biden’s lead over Donald Trump has narrowed.

Mr Biden’s visit to the troubled Wisconsin city comes two days after the president visited Kenosha, saying the city had been ravaged “by anti-police and anti-American riots.”

The issue of law and order continued to dominate the campaign Thursday (AEST) despite attempts by the former vice president to turn the focus back to the coronavirus and the issue of school reopenings.

It came as three new national polls taken after last week’s Republican convention show the former vice president maintaining a solid but narrowing lead over Mr Trump.

A USA Today/Suffolk University poll showed Mr Biden with a seven point 50-43 per cent lead over Mr Trump, down from a 12 point lead in June.

A new Quinnipac University poll shows Mr Biden with a ten point 52-42 per cent, down from a 15 point lead in July.

Another new poll, by Grinnell College, shows Mr Biden with an eight-point lead, 49-41 per cent over Mr Trump.

However a Monmouth University poll shows Mr Trump closing the gap with Mr Biden in the key swing state of Pennsylvania where Mr Biden’s lead has shrunk to only four points from 13 points in mid-July.

Both the Republicans and the Democrats have launched new ads on law and order in the swing states of the Midwest with Republicans accusing Mr Biden of being soft on crime and Democrats accusing the president of fanning racial and civil unrest.

Mr Biden said he would visit Kenosha in response to “overwhelming requests” despite Democrat authorities previously asking Mr Trump to stay away because a visit would be seen as divisive.

He said the purpose of the visit was ‘to be a positive influence on what’s going on, to talk about what may be done and try to see if there may be the beginning of a mechanism to bring the folks together. We have to heal. This is about making sure that we move forward.”

Donald Trump is determined to instill fear and divide us, but what he doesn't understand is that fear never builds the future — hope does. pic.twitter.com/3DFE6R6CWQ

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 2, 2020

White House deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern said Mr Biden’s visit was ‘too little, too late.”

“I mean it’s unfortunate that violence and rioting and the president, President Trump, taking that seriously is finally what will get a Democratic presidential candidate to visit the people of Wisconsin,” Mr Morgenstern said.

Two people were killed in Kenosha last week in vigilante-style killings after rioters destroyed local businesses following the police shooting of African American Jacob Blake. Mr Biden has called for charges to be laid against the police officer who shot Mr Blake.

Mr Trump continued to push the law and order issue on Thursday (AEST) during a speech in front of a battleship in the swing state of North Carolina to mark the 75th anniversary of victory in World War II.

“American warriors did not defeat fascism and oppression overseas only to watch our freedoms be trampled by violent mobs here at home,” Trump told veterans in Wilmington.

Mr Trump spoke about 97-year-old WWII medal of honour winner Hershel ‘Woody” Williams, describing him as ‘100 per cent sharp,’ and then saying, in a reference to his Democrat opponent; “I know a 78-year-old who’s not so sharp.”

Meanwhile Mr Biden announced a record-breaking fundraising month of $US364.5 million in August on the back of the Democratic convention and the naming of Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Some of that money has been funnelled into his largest advertising campaign to date, including the new law and order ad in which Mr Biden pledges to ‘lower the temperature’ of the national debate on race and bring the country together.

The Republican ad on law and order says “Biden and the radical left’s weak response has led to chaos and violence.” It portrays the president as the one who has stamped out riots and chaos on the streets.

“Communities, not criminals,” the ad says. “Jobs, not mobs.”

(Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia)