Former Vice President Joe Biden issued a statement late Saturday night addressing the death of George Floyd and the explosive protests that have gripped the country in its wake. He said he understood the anger behind the demonstrations and found it justified, but he pleaded with those involved to refrain from violence: “These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country...Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. It’s an utterly American response. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not...The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest.”

He closed by saying, “We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us.” President Trump’s latest tweet, by contrast, read, “The National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldn’t do.”