After ignoring the unrest and political violence that’s erupted in many Democratic-controlled cities for the past three months, Joe Biden finally acknowledged the chaos in a speech in Pittsburgh on Monday, but pinned the blame on Donald Trump, going all in on the idea that the only way to stop riots and looting in American cities is to vote Democrat come November.

Biden’s speech offered a half-hearted condemnation of the unrest by far-Left agitators, acknowledging that “Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting,” but refusing to call out Antifa or Black Lives Matter by name. Instead, he reserved his vitriol for law enforcement, the Trump administration, and American gun owners.

The Democratic presidential nominee accused President Trump of fanning the flames instead of fighting them. He also accused the president of long ago forfeiting “any moral leadership in this country. He can’t stop the violence — because for years he has fomented it.”

Biden said the violence now isn’t what America would look like under him, but what America already looks like under President Trump.

“He may believe mouthing the words law and order makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows you how weak he is,” Biden said.

Joe Biden may not want to acknowledge it, but it wasn’t a Trump supporter or militia member who’s under investigation for the fatal shooting in Portland on Saturday night. It wasn’t Trump supporters who were responsible for the shootings of at least three people during the short-lived CHOP takeover in Seattle back in June. And in Kenosha, Wisconsin, it’s clear that demonstrators on both sides were armed in Kenosha.

It’s not Trump supporters calling for revolution in the streets of Washington, D.C., setting up guillotines outside of political speeches, and mobbing people eating at restaurants in our nation’s capital, demanding they raise a fist in solidarity or else risk the anger and rage of the mob.

Biden can’t mention any of this, of course. His argument is that if Trump’s re-elected, then the violence will only continue, but not once during his speech did he actually explain why he believes that’s the case. The answer appears to be obvious; it will end because those violent actors on the Left will have gotten their way if the Biden/Harris campaign wins in November. They won’t feel the need to burn down buildings, because the Democratic Party will begin burning down institutions for them.

Of course, Biden’s vision of the future also contains a heaping helping of new gun control laws that would criminalize the possession of commonly owned firearms and ammunition magazines, new gun licensing laws for existing gun owners, and a host of other restrictions on our Second Amendment rights. Perhaps Biden believes that he can ban his way to safety, but attempting to ensure peace through civilian disarmament isn’t going to end well.

Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats haven’t uttered a peep of criticism about the violence in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York, and other deep-blue cities over the past few months. Only when the polls began reflecting increased support for Donald Trump in battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin did the Democrats decide they had to start talking tough, while placing all of the blame on the president and his supporters.

The mainstream media is sure to praise Biden’s speech as one for the ages, but in truth it was nothing more than an exercise in blamecasting and scapegoating. In Biden’s view, the only way to return peace to the streets is to return him to the White House; not because he’ll offer a stronger response to the rioters and looters, but because then they’ll be satisfied and satiated. If that sounds more like a form of political blackmail than real leadership to you, at least you’re not alone.