Presidential hopeful Joe Biden has condemned the ’systemic racism’ that exists in the US and attacked Donald Trump over his leadership as anger and violence sweeps across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

In a wide-ranging address in Philadelphia, Biden said the country was ’crying out for leadership’ and made the vow that if elected in November, ’I won’t fan the flames of hate’.

He said: “Donald Trump has turned this country into a battlefield riven by old resentments and fresh fears.

"Is this who we want to be? Is this what we want to pass on to our children and grandchildren? Fear, anger, finger pointing, rather than the pursuit of happiness? Incompetence and anxiety, self-absorption, selfishness?”

The killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody after earlier being seen crying out for breath as a white police officer knelt on his neck for at least eight minutes, has sparked an outpouring of grief and anger across the country. 

Peaceful demonstrations soon gave way to anger and violence as cities across the country bore witness to a growing sense of outrage.

Biden said: “’I can’t breathe’, George Floyd’s last words, but they didn’t die with him. They are still being heard, they speak to a nation. They speak to a nation where too often just the colour of your skin will put your life at risk.

"They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to a virus, 40 million have filed for unemployment with a disproportionate amount of those deaths and job losses concentrated in black and brown communities.

"It’s a wake up call, in my view, for all of us and I mean all of us. It’s not the first time we have heard those words, they are the same words we heard from Eric Garner when his life was taken away six years ago.

"But it’s time to listen to those words, to try to understand them, to respond to them, respond with action.

"The moment has come for our nation to deal with systemic racism.”

He also called for police reform and said misconduct ’should be dealt with severely and swiftly’. He said the US needs to address the ’culture’ that allows officers to conduct unjustified violence.

“We need each and every police department in the country to undertake a comprehensive review of their hiring, their training, and their de-escalation practices.

“The President of the United States must be part of the solution, not the problem.”

"He's [Trump] using the American military against the American people. He tear-gassed peaceful protesters and fired rubber bullets. For a photo.

“For our children, for the very soul of our country, we must defeat him.”

Protesters were tear gassed yesterday to clear a path for the President to process from the White House to St John’s church opposite. He then had his photo taken outside the church holding a bible.

"Rather than hold it, he should try reading it," said Biden.

"The band-aid has been ripped off this pandemic and this president. Nobody can pretend any longer what this is all about.

"Hate just hides. Doesn't go away. And when you have somebody in power who breathes oxygen into the hate under the rocks, it comes out from under the rocks.

"It matters what the president says. It encourages people to bring out the vitriol."

The former vice president added that if he were to be elected in the Presidental vote this November he would address the racial divides in the country.

"I promise you this. I won't traffic in fear and division. I won't fan the flames of hate. I'll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country — not use them for political gain.

"I'll do my job and I will take responsibility. I won't blame others. I will never forget, I promise you, this job is not about me. It's about you. It's about us. And I'll work to not only rebuild this nation, but to build it better than it was."