'You know what is actually threatening our suburbs - fires': Biden mocks Trump's law and order fear-mongering in climate crisis speech

Joe Biden has delivered a mocking attack on Donald Trump, saying the real threat faced by the nation’s suburbs are raging wildfires.

As more than a hundred wildfires continued to threaten the western states of California, Oregon and Portland, Mr Biden said the president had roundly failed to even acknowledge the cause of the blazes.

“How many suburbs will be burned? How many suburbs will be blown away in superstorms?” Mr Biden said. “If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is under water?”

His comments, delivered from Wilmington, Delaware, came as Mr Trump visited California, which has been badly impacted by the fires, which have killed dozens of people and forced hundreds of thousands have been forced to evacuate from the American West.

Mr Trump, who has variously dismissed the climate change crisis as a hoax, has angered local Democratic leaders, with his claims the wildfires have been caused by poor forest management, and a lack of raking. Experts say the fires, long a feature of California and the Pacific Northwest have become more frequent and more intense as result of climate change.

Mr Biden also mocked Mr Trump’s election strategy of seeking to present himself as a “law and order” candidate, a tactic long used by candidates seeking to deliver a coded racist message about the purported threat to the suburban life from the inner cities.

Critics say Mr Trump’s efforts echo those of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, who appealed to white voters, without actually using racist language.

Speaking at the Delaware Museum of Natural History in Wilmington, said: “We have to act as a nation. It shouldn’t be so bad that millions of Americans live in the shadow of an orange sky, and they’re left asking ‘Is doomsday here’.”

On the issue of a alleged threat to the nation’s suburbs, he said: “Donald Trump warns that integration is threatening our suburbs. That’s ridiculous.

But you know what’s actually threatening our suburbs?”

He added: “Wildfires are burning the suburbs in the West. Floods are wiping out suburban neighborhoods in the Midwest. And hurricanes are imperiling suburban life along our coasts.”