White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she was “disappointed” by the verdict in the Larry Arney case, while Biden recalled that he had once faced a similar situation as Delaware senator and argued it was a “fundamental decision of fairness.”
“We have a fundamental responsibility to police ourselves,” he said. “To state, that you’re going to chase people down.”
Biden said that from the start the officer in the case, Tyrone West, behaved as an “urban cop,” acting improperly and announcing his presence. “The interaction was not right,” he said.
The former vice president said the burden was on police departments to take responsibility for what happens on their turf.
Biden told reporters that he often planned to walk to downtown Washington and that occasionally others drove him there.
The Delaware senator recalled the frustration he felt as a young state senator in a different city: “It’s a challenge to get people to respect me when they should,” he said.
After Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” Biden said he remembers how many lives he lost.
“It’s important to step up and call our own evil empire, and to hold people accountable,” he said.
Biden lamented how few Americans question President Donald Trump and called it the “new normal.”
“I think it’s the new normal,” he said. “I think that he pushes a difference and in the end, his people will do what he wants them to do.”
Biden said he was “sick and tired” of Trump and members of his administration shirking their responsibility.