SHORTLY AFTER George Floyd was killed by a Minnesotan policeman last May, Joe Biden condemned the riots that his killing had sparked. "Protesting such brutality is right and necessary," he said. "Burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not." He repeated his denunciation several times over the next few days. President Donald Trump meanwhile accused him of ignoring the issue. So it has continued. Though Mr Biden has more often expressed support for the ongoing racial-justice protests against police brutality, he has not failed to condemn the violent fringe that, in Oregon, Illinois and now Wisconsin, continues to haunt them. "There is no justification whatsoever for violence, looting," he said last week, after the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha sparked yet more rioting. The following day-at the Republican convention-Mr Trump for the umpteenth time accused him of failing to condemn what Mr Biden had just condemned. The hammering the former vice-president has taken on this issue-every evening on Fox News as well as from Mr Trump-has unnerved some of his supporters. Some suggest a 1968-style silent majority, sickened by the violence, is building against the Democrats. It sounds plausible. But there is no strong evidence for it yet. That means the Democrats anxiously demanding that Mr Biden issue ever more and louder denunciations of the street violence are essentially taking their cues from Mr Trump and Tucker Carlson, who do not have their interests at heart.
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