Wednesday at a campaign event in Burlington, IA, 2020 presidential hopeful, former Vice President Joe Biden accused President Donald Trump of fanning “the flames of white supremacy.”

Biden said, “You all know the words of a president matters. They can move markets. They can send our brave women and men to war. They can bring peace. They can calm a nation in turmoil. They can console and confront and comfort those who have faced tragedy. They can inspire us to reach for the moon. They can encourage us to appeal to our better angels, to our better nature, but they can also unleash the deepest, darkest forces in this nation. And that’s what I believe Donald Trump has chosen to do. When he said after Charlottesville there were, and I quote, ‘very fine people on both sides,’ I said then it gave license, and safe harbor to white supremacists and neo-Nazis is the Ku Klux Klan. These words not only stunned America, but they stunned the world. And in doing so, he assigned a moral equivalence, a moral equivalence between those spewing hate and those with the courage to stand against it. I said at the time we’re going to battle for the soul of this nation. I said it again when I announced my candidacy. And I say here today we are in a battle for the soul of nation. That’s why primarily I’m running for president. ‘

He continued, “Charlottesville was no isolated incident. When Trump announced he was running for president, he called Mexicans rapists. Days before the midterm, he formed fears of a caravan heading for the United States when he said, ‘Look, what’s marching up. This is an invasion, an invasion.’ The assertion [is] that immigrants would, quote, carve you up with a knife.”

“More recently, he called a major American Senate city a disgusting rat-infected rodent mess,” he continued. “‘No human being,’ he said, would choose to live as though the vibrant, diverse community around Baltimore somehow was less than human. At a rally in Florida when he asked the crowd how do we stop these people, meaning immigrants, someone yelled back, ‘Shoot them,’ and he smiled. In North Carolina, he basked in the chants of ‘Send her back’ echoing across the stadium. How far is it from Trump saying, ‘This is an invasion’ to the shooter in El Paso declaring, quote, ‘This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas?'”

“How far apart are those comments?” Biden added. “How far is it from white supremacist and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville chanting, “Replace us” to the shooter at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh saying we’re committing genocide; Jews are committing genocide on his people? I don’t think it’s that far at all. It’s both clear language, and in code, this president has fanned the flames of white supremacy. His mouthing of the words written for him, condemning white supremacists this week, I don’t believe fooled anyone at home or abroad.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN