Former vice president Joe Biden continues his campaign and many have seen the steps he has taken as of late as an effort not to repeat the same mistakes his predecessors made. One example was made when Biden announced last week that he would address the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
Politico reports that Biden took to Twitter to make this promise with his supporters, which is something that has not been done by his predecessors, including the Obama administration. Shared on the day of remembrance of the horrific event, Biden tweeted, “Today we remember the atrocities faced by the Armenian people in the Metz Yeghern – the Armenian Genocide. If elected, I pledge to support a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide and will make universal human rights a top priority.”
President Donald Trump also issued a statement on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day but did not call it as such. Instead, Trump referred to it as among the worst “mass atrocities of the 20th century.” Their predecessor, former President Barack Obama, did pledge to address the 1915 event should he be elected back when he was a candidate in 2008. However, his administration did not classify the events as such.
Also called the Armenian Holocaust, around three million Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians were executed by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century. Turkey continues to deny referring to the events as genocide but has been pressured by parliaments in 32 countries to recognize the events as such. It was in 1943 that Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the word.
Meanwhile, as the Trump administration faces criticism for its handling of the coronavirus response. Reuters reports that the Democrats along with Biden’s allies have gone on the offensive against Trump and his campaign, using his increasingly gaffe-filled White House press briefings as a way to expose his mismanagement of the country especially in the midst of a pandemic that is plaguing the world.
So far, the former vice president’s campaign involved campaign ads aiming to expose Trump making the worst policy mistakes compared to his predecessors in years and administrations past. Republicans who strongly oppose Trump have also released ads of their own, using his response to the pandemic as a way to expose him.