Joe Biden speaks to Jacob Blake and family as he visits flashpoint city of Kenosha

Name: Third night of violent protests in US state of Wisconsin after police shooting of Jacob Blake
Uploaded: 2020-09-03T21:07:35.000Z
Duration: 2 min 32 s
Description: Third night of violent protests in US state of Wisconsin after police shooting of Jacob Blake

Black man was shot by white police officer in Wisconsin, sparking protests against racial injustice

Democratic presidential nominee seeks to contrast approach with that of Trump, who visited city two days earlier

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Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden meets members of the community at Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Thursday. Photo: AP

Bloomberg

Published: 5:07am, 4 Sep 2020Updated: 7:11am, 17 Oct 2020

Joe Biden said on Thursday that he spoke on the phone with Jacob Blake, the Black man shot by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a visit with Blake’s relatives.

Biden said Blake was out of intensive care. “He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him,” Biden told a group at Grace Lutheran Church in Kenosha. “How, whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up.”

The family has said Blake is paralysed after being shot seven times in the back.

“What I came away with was the overwhelming sense of resilience and optimism they have about the kind of response they’re getting,” Biden said of the Blake family.

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Third night of violent protests in US state of Wisconsin after police shooting of Jacob Blake

The Blakes’ lawyer, Benjamin Crump, issued a statement after the hour-long meeting at the Milwaukee airport with Blake’s father and siblings. His mother, Julia Jackson, and Crump joined in by phone.