Trump leadership ‘giving licence’ to surge in US antisemitism, Biden says

“The largest one-year increase since they started keeping records in 1970. That’s not an accident. It’s not an accident.

“Our leadership is giving licencse, giving licence to this prejudice.”

Antisemitic incidents in 2017 included a march of white supremacists in Charlottesville, where hundreds of people marched through the University of Virginia campus chanting “Jews will not replace us”, as a rival group opposed them.

Paralegal and social activist Heather Heyer, 32, died after a car was driven into a body of people involved in one counter protest.

Mr Trump drew anger from across mainstream US politics by refusing to uneqivocally condemn the neo-Nazi movement, choosing instead to say both “very fine people on both sides”.

James Alex Fields Jr, 21, is currently on trial charged with first-degree murder in relation to the car-ramming incident.

Mr Biden is rumoured to be considering a run for the presidency against Donald Trump in the next election, due in 2020.