Joseph R. Biden has some advice for President Trump: If he wants to run around holding up the Bible, he should try reading it as well.
Mr. Biden said Tuesday Mr. Trump could learn by thumbing through the pages that his narcissism is hurting the nation.
“The president held up the Bible at St. John’s Church yesterday, I just wish he opened it once in a while, instead of brandishing it,” Mr. Biden said during a speech in Philadelphia. “If he opened it he could have learned something: we’re all called to love one another as we love ourselves.
“It is really hard work, but it is the work of America,” he said. “Donald Trump isn’t interested in doing that work. Instead he is preening and sweeping away all the guardrails that have long protected our democracy — guardrails that have helped make possible this nation’s path toward a more perfect union.”
Mr. Biden leveled the criticism Tuesday while addressing the national outcry over the death of George Floyd that has fueled protests over policing and racial inequality.
Mr. Trump made headlines Monday after marching along with members of his inner circle to the church across the street from the White House after protesters were cleared out of the way with tear gas.
The church had previously been briefly set ablaze by protestors.
Mr. Trump then held up a Bible outside the church, drawing criticism from the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who said church officials were not given a heads-up about the plan.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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