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After a week of nationwide unrest and months in self-imposed quarantine, former Vice President Joe Biden addressed the chaos gripping American cities and compared President Trump to a segregation-era authoritarian, Politico reported.

Biden’s speech, delivered Tuesday from Philadelphia City Hall, highlighted Trump’s rhetoric and actions against the backdrop of an ongoing pandemic and a wave of protests and violence sparked by the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died last week after his neck was pinned to the ground under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

“Look where we are now and think anew: Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be? Is this who we want to pass on to our children and our grandchildren? Fear. Anger. Finger-pointing rather than the pursuit of happiness? Or do we want to be the America we know we could be?” Biden asked, echoing his campaign theme of “restoring the soul of this nation.”

Biden called for police reform and also condemned violence and vandalism. But he faulted Trump most of all, zeroing in on the president’s Rose Garden address Monday evening when he announced a military response to the protests and riots that have emanated from Minneapolis to rock cities across the U.S., including Washington.

Moments before Trump spoke, law enforcement used flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets to clear an apparently peaceful crowd from Lafayette Square, across from the White House. With the park cleared, Trump walked across to visit St. John's Church, where a small fire had been set during the weekend amid rioting, and held up a Bible for a photo up.

“The president held up the Bible at St John's Church yesterday. I just wish he opened it once in a while, instead of brandishing it,” Biden said. “If he opened it, he could have learned something that we’re all called to love one another as we love ourselves. It's really hard work. But it's the work of America. Donald Trump isn’t interested in doing that work.”

Biden said Trump, instead, is sweeping away “the guardrails that have long protected our democracy.”

“In addition to the Bible, he might also want to open the U.S. Constitution. If he did, he’d find the First Amendment,” Biden said, reading the passage about the “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.’”

“I promise you this,” Biden said, “I won’t traffic in fear and division. I won’t fan the flames of hate. I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country — not use them for political gain."