Bill Barr is building his own personal army. It’s time to step up, Joe Biden

With Trump physically putting more and more space between himself and citizens, and with his attorney general busy constructing a secret police force, the next few weeks will be about you, Mr Vice President

This means Trump effectively has access to his own army as well (AFP via Getty)

Donald Trump, it turns out, is building a wall – only it’s a large black fence around the White House grounds after he sicced the US military on his own citizens.

The attorney general, William Barr, is building his own secretive police force after ordering federal officers, over which he has no control, to use force against American citizens.

Now is Joe Biden’s moment.

If the affable and passionate former vice president cannot seize control of the 2020 election amid this sudden intersection of racial, social, health and economic crises, he likely won’t get a better chance.

His speech on Tuesday in Philadelphia, condemning the president’s stunning Monday evening actions, was a solid start. Biden was measured and pragmatic, but also hopeful and what passes for inspiring during these rather bleak times. He looked and sounded presidential, or what we not so long ago considered presidential.

He’s leading in Ohio. He’s in a virtual dead heat with Trump in longtime Republican stronghold Texas. And he’s even competitive in Georgia.

If not now, Joe Biden, when?

Washington woke on Thursday morning, following a peaceful night of protesting that drew what some called the largest crowd to date, to yet more surreal images. Workers around the White House grounds were taking large sections of black fencing off trucks and erecting a, well, wall around the executive compound’s 18 acres backed by waist-high concrete barriers.

That followed 10 bus loads of active-duty US military forces arriving in the capital city around sundown on Wednesday night. Trump fancies them a protest-quelling police force, even though, as this correspondent reported on Wednesday, as recently as last week he noted the Pentagon has proven itself a pretty lousy police department (see: Afghanistan and Iraq).

Biden would be well-served to continue hitting the messages he did Tuesday morning in his Philadelphia speech, especially given how the president has talked about military forces and protesters.

“If a city or a state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” Trump said during a Monday evening Rose Garden speech, describing American forces in exactly the opposite terms he did as a presidential candidate four years ago.

Then came his stroll to St John’s Episcopal Church across Lafayette Park, which was made possible by US Secret Service and US Park Police officers, joined by the Washington DC National Guard, firing smoke-emitting projectiles and rubber bullets at protesters and journalists to make the park and one block of H Street NW safe for Trump’s stroll.

Sure, there are instigators within the nightly crowds who appear responsible for some isolated incidents of looting. That’s wrong. But so it what Trump did on Monday evening. Also wrong at worst and highly questionable at best is his attorney general’s role in what’s happening in The District.

“The attorney general decided that morning to expand the perimeter, and that was a decision made long before the church discussion was ever under consideration,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters on Wednesday.

He did what now?

The uniformed Secret Service and Park Police officers did the honours of clearing the H Street area. The former resides within the Department of Homeland Security; the latter within the Department of Interior. Barr runs the Justice Department. That means he has no jurisdiction over those officers. Did they follow a baseless order?

“The last time I checked, the attorney general is the chief law enforcement officer in the country,” one White House official told The Independent on Wednesday. That’s not a good enough explanation. (And allow me to note it is the president who calls himself the country’s top cop).

Elizabeth Warren joins George Floyd protests in Washington DCBut I digress.)

Barr seemingly has no authority over officers from those agencies, but the White House has not provided any document the president might have signed to alter the federal command structure. In the meantime, the AG, a shrewd Washington veteran, has found a workaround by bringing a hodgepodge force to DC composed of five agencies that actually are under his purview. But on Wednesday, most were wearing no insignias to identify themselves as federal officers and they refused to disclose their employers.

“Barr is deploying Bureau of Prison officers on the streets and officers from a mashup of federal agencies who aren’t wearing identification and aren’t trained in managing mass protests. This is the twilight zone except it’s real and it’s all happening,” tweeted Vanita Gupta, a former head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

Joyce Vance, a former US attorney, warned the AG is building what amounts to “a personal army”. She then added this warning: “That means Trump has access to it. Congress needs to act now to prevent this.”

It is highly doubtful Congress will. A couple of GOP senators have criticised the president’s actions – but mostly via the always-courageous tactic of praising retired generals who have actually criticised Trump.

That means only voters can really check Trump and Barr. But they will need Biden to convince them he would handle a future coalescence of major crises with more foresight, strategic thinking and empathy than the current occupant of the Oval Office.

“The country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can unite us. Leadership that can bring us together. Leadership that can recognise the pain and deep grief of communities that have had a knee on their neck for too long,” the former vice president said on Tuesday.

“I promise you this. 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,” he added. “I’ll do my job and take responsibility. I won’t blame others. I’ll never forget that the job isn’t about me. It’s about you.”

That’s certainly true. But with Trump physically putting more and more space between himself and citizens, and with his attorney general busy constructing a secret police force, the next few weeks will be about you, Mr former vice president.

The Biden-themed chatter around Washington the last few years has been about whether he can rise to big moments and avoid self-inflicted wounds. We’re about to find out.