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Joe Biden said Thursday in Kenosha, Wisconsin that he was able to talk to Jacob Blake, the black man shot by a white officer in the city, by phone as he gathered with family members at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport. 

‘I had the opportunity to spend some time with Jacob on the phone. He’s out of ICU. We spoke for about 15 minutes,’ Biden said at the Grace Lutheren Church in Kenosha. ‘He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him. Whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up.’   

Biden and his wife Jill made a two-city trip to Wisconsin, a key swing state, first stopping in Milwaukee for a meeting with Blake’s family members and then motorcading to Kenosha for a conversation with community stakeholders. 

In Milwaukee, reporters were kept outside the hour-long meeting, but the campaign said the Democratic nominee and his wife met with Jacob Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., his sisters Letetra Widman and Zietha Blake, his brother Myron Jackson, and lawyers Patrick Salvi Sr. and B’Ivory LaMarr. 

His mother Julia Jackson and attorney Ben Crump joined the meeting by phone. 

Crump put out a statement about the meeting, as Biden was revealing his phone conversation also included Blake, who was shot seven times in the back by police with three of his children in his car. He’s likely paralyzed from the waist down. 

‘The family was grateful for the meeting and was very impressed that the Bidens were so engaged and willing to really listenl,’ Crump reported. 

Crump and Biden both talked about how Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, led the group in prayer. Biden said she also prayed for the police officer who wounded her son. 

‘They talked about changing the disparate treatment of minorities in police interactions, the impact of selecting Kamala Harris as a Black woman as his running mate, and Vice President Biden’s plans for change,’ Crump continued. 

On Biden’s conversation with the shooting victim Crump said, ‘Jacob Jr. shared about the pain he is enduring, and the vice president commiserated.’

‘It was very obvious that Vice President Biden cared as he extended to Jacob Jr. a sense of humanity, treating him as a person worthy of consideration and prayer,’ Crump said.  

Biden’s Wisconsin visit comes two days after President Donald Trump visited Kenosha to tour wreckage from the riots that broke out in the aftermath of the police shooting of Blake. 

Trump also reinforced his commitment to siding with law enforcement during the trip, calling rioters ‘domestic terrorists,’ and white officers who kill or shoot black Americans ‘bad apples’ or individuals who’ve ‘choked.’

Trump did not meet with members of Blake’s family, nor did he say Blake’s name during his remarks. 

On the ground in Kenosha, the president dismissed the idea that most of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that occurred after the Memorial Day death of George Floyd – and more recently the shooting of Blake – have been peaceful. 

‘I keep hearing about peaceful protests … and then I come to an area like this and the town is burned down,’ Trump said. ‘By and large this is not peaceful protesting,’ he repeated later.    

State and local officials, including Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, and Kenosha’s Mayor John Antaramian, also a Democrat, said they didn’t want Trump to come, but the president insisted. 

Biden was asked Wednesday during a Q&A with reporters what made his trip to the area any different. 

‘I have spoken to all the leaders up there,’ the former vice president said, adding that he had been working with Evers’ staff, but had yet to speak one-on-on with the state’s governor. ‘There have been overwhelming requests that I do come.’ 

‘We’ve got to heal, we’ve got to put things together, bring people together and so my purpose in going will be to do just that,’ Biden continued. ‘Be a positive influence on what’s going on, talk about what needs to be done and try to see if there’s a beginning of a mechanism to bring folks together.’ 

He said he had received advice from House and Senate members, who he said encouraged him to make the trek. 

‘And I’m not going to do anything other than meetings with community leaders as well as business people and other folks in law enforcement and start to talk about what has been done,’ Biden said. 

The campaign has not publicly confirmed that he’s meeting with the Blake family. 

‘I’m not going to tell Kenosha what they have to do,’ Biden also said. 

Biden’s trip to Wisconsin marks the first time a Democratic presidential candidate has gone to the state since the 2012 cycle. 

Hillary Clinton notably skipped campaigning in Wisconsin, only to lose the state to Trump, helping him earn his Electoral College victory in 2016. 

The Democratic National Convention was supposed to take place in the state – and while some delegates did gather in Milwaukee – Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris gave their nomination speeches from Wilmington, Delaware instead, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

Trump and the Republicans have gone after Biden for his reluctance to travel.

On Wednesday, as the president was heading to North Carolina – another key swing state – he started referring to Biden as ‘Joe Hiden,” as the ex-veep spent most of the early months of the pandemic campaigning from his Wilmington basement. 

This week Biden took on a more robust campaign schedule, traveling to Pittsburgh Monday to deliver a speech. 

The campaign called an early ‘lid’ Tuesday – meaning the candidate would not be leaving his residence, which again garnered criticism from Republicans. 

On Wednesday, Biden delivered remarks on reopening schools and then took questions from reporters, the first time he devoted real time to a press Q&A in weeks. 

On Friday, Biden will deliver remarks on the economy to reporters back in Wilmington.