Donald Trump to pay a contentious visit to Kenosha today

U.S. President Donald Trump is diving head first into the latest eruption in the nation's reckoning over racial injustice with a trip Tuesday — over the objections of local leaders — to Kenosha, Wis., which has been riven by protests since the Aug. 23 shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times in the back by police.

Trump has defended a teenage supporter accused of fatally shooting two men in Kenosha last week and accused the former vice-president of siding with "anarchists" and "rioters."

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat who deployed the National Guard to quell demonstrations in response to the Blake shooting, pleaded with Trump to stay away for fear of straining tensions further. The White House said the president was expected to meet with law enforcement and tour "property affected by recent riots."

"I am concerned your presence will only hinder our healing. I am concerned your presence will only delay our work to overcome division and move forward together," Evers wrote in a letter to Trump.

Several members of the Kenosha County Board sent their own letter, however, saying Trump's "leadership in this time of crisis is greatly appreciated by those devastated by the violence in Kenosha."

Trump insisted his appearance could "increase enthusiasm" in Wisconsin, perhaps the most hotly contested battleground state in the presidential race, as the White House said he "wants to visit hurting Americans."

He was expected to take credit for calling in the National Guard — an act taken by Evers — and for surging federal law enforcement to the city to restore the peace. The White House said Trump was not going to meet with Blake's family.

"I am a tremendous fan of law enforcement and I want to thank law enforcement," Trump told Fox News in an interview Monday night. "They've done a good job."

Trump suggested that some police officers "choke" when faced with challenging situations, "just like in a golf tournament — they miss a three-foot putt."

Trump 'stoking violence': Biden

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, in his most direct attacks yet, accused Trump earlier Monday of causing the divisions that have ignited the violence. He delivered an uncharacteristically blistering speech in Pittsburgh and distanced himself from radical forces involved in altercations.

Biden said of Trump: "He doesn't want to shed light, he wants to generate heat, and he's stoking violence in our cities. He can't stop the violence because for years he's fomented it."

Trump, for his part, reiterated that he blames radical troublemakers stirred up and backed by Biden. But when he was asked about one of his own supporters who was charged with killing two men during the mayhem in Kenosha, Trump declined to denounce the killings and suggested that the 17-year-old suspect, Kyle Rittenhouse, was acting in self-defence.

After a confrontation in which he fatally shot one man, police say, Rittenhouse fell while being chased by people trying to disarm him. A second person was shot and killed.

"That was an interesting situation," Mr. Trump told reporters Monday during a news conference. "He was trying to get away from them I guess, it looks like, and he fell. And then they very violently attacked him. And it is something that we're looking at right now and it's under investigation. I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed. But it's under investigation."

Biden saw Trump's impact far differently, accusing the president of "poisoning" the nation's values.

In a statement after Trump's news conference but before his Fox News remarks, Biden said: "Tonight, the president declined to rebuke violence. He wouldn't even repudiate one of his supporters who is charged with murder because of his attacks on others. He is too weak, too scared of the hatred he has stirred to put an end to it."

WATCH | Biden condemns looting, property destruction:

Trump and his campaign team have seized upon the unrest in Kenosha, as well as in Portland, Ore., where a Trump supporter was shot and killed, leaning hard into a defence of law and order while suggesting that Biden is beholden to extremists.

In Pittsburgh, Biden resoundingly condemned violent protesters and called for their prosecution — addressing a key Trump critique.

"It's lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted," Biden said. And he leaned on his own 47-year career in politics to defend himself against Republican attacks.

The former vice-president also tried to refocus the race on what has been its defining theme — Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 180,000 Americans dead — after a multi-day onslaught by the president's team to make the campaign about the violence rattling American cities.

Biden declared that even as Trump is "trying to scare America," what's really causing the nation's fear is Trump's own failures.

"You want to talk about fear? They're afraid they're going to get COVID, they're afraid they're going to get sick and die," Biden said.