Biden says he would work with police chiefs, community leaders to hold officers more accountable
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said during Thursday night's CNN Presidential Town Hall in Scranton that if elected president, he will ensure that police reforms will be made by putting together a coalition of police chiefs, officers, unions, and civil rights and community leaders.
They will "sit at a table and agree on the fundamental things that have to be done, including much more rigorous background checks [for those] that apply for and become officers," Biden said. He called the "vast majority" of police officers "decent, honorable people," adding that "one of the things I've found is, the only people who don't like bad cops more than we don't like them are police officers. And so what we have to do is we have to have a much more transparent means by which we provide for accountability within police departments."
Moderator Anderson Cooper asked Biden about one of author Bob Woodward's recent interviews with President Trump, during which Woodward asked Trump if he benefited from white privilege. "No, I don't feel that way at all," Trump responded. Biden said he feels the opposite way, and did benefit "just because I don't have to go through what my Black brothers and sisters have had to go through."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Biden pivoted and began talking about classism, and how "growing up here in Scranton, we're used to guys who look down their nose at us. We are used to people looking at us and thinking more suckers, look at us and think that we're not equivalent to them. If you didn't have a college degree, you must be stupid." This is the wrong attitude to have, Biden said, adding, "We are as good as anybody else, and guys like Trump who inherited everything and squandered what they inherited are the people that I've always had a problem with, not the people who are busting their neck."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Local elections 2026: where are they and who is expected to win?The Explainer Labour is braced for heavy losses and U-turn on postponing some council elections hasn’t helped the party’s prospects
-
6 of the world’s most accessible destinationsThe Week Recommends Experience all of Berlin, Singapore and Sydney
-
How the FCC’s ‘equal time’ rule worksIn the Spotlight The law is at the heart of the Colbert-CBS conflict
-
Maxwell pleads 5th, offers Epstein answers for pardonSpeed Read She offered to talk only if she first received a pardon from President Donald Trump
-
Hong Kong jails democracy advocate Jimmy LaiSpeed Read The former media tycoon was sentenced to 20 years in prison
-
Ex-Illinois deputy gets 20 years for Massey murderSpeed Read Sean Grayson was sentenced for the 2024 killing of Sonya Massey
-
Sole suspect in Brown, MIT shootings found deadSpeed Read The mass shooting suspect, a former Brown grad student, died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds
-
France makes first arrests in Louvre jewels heistSpeed Read Two suspects were arrested in connection with the daytime theft of royal jewels from the museum
-
Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched familySpeed Read Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange
-
Thieves nab French crown jewels from LouvreSpeed Read A gang of thieves stole 19th century royal jewels from the Paris museum’s Galerie d’Apollon
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 yearsSpeed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
