Joe Biden is clueless about the nation’s latest crisis

“The nation is crying out for leadership, but this president has nothing to offer,” claims Joe Biden — while offering none of his own.

As cities across the country see violent vandals exploiting larger crowds of protesters outraged by the George Floyd killing, Biden is focused entirely on playing to that outrage — cluelessly.

“We need to get to work immediately on real police reform,” the ex-veep insists. In fact, a community-policing revolution has been underway for decades — Bill Bratton led it in New York, Los Angeles and again in this city, drastically reducing police use of force each time while also driving down incarceration rates. Now the extreme left has its own ideas, which boil down to no policing at all.

But Biden’s got no clue about any of it. His idea for reform? “Instead of standing there and teaching a cop when there’s an unarmed person coming at ’em with a knife or something, shoot ’em in the leg instead of the heart is a very different thing,” Biden said in a (can you believe it?) prepared speech at a church last week.

Translate the Joe-speak, and you’re still scratching your head: “Shoot to wing” is a fantasy — near-impossible even for expert marksmen, especially in a chaotic street situation. In mere seconds, you just can’t react, track a target and shoot like that.

For all his own problems with precise phrasing, President Trump is trying to address the violent lawlessness that opportunists are causing under the cover of protests. Biden shows no interest in reassuring Americans he cares about their safety.

He’s had barely a word to say about the victims of rioting. “I urge the protesters to exercise their rights peacefully and safely. But people all across this country are enraged and rightly so,” he said during a campaign fundraiser.

His Twitter feed is filled with condemnations of Trump and support for the protesters — but nary a word about the violence’s victims.

Nothing about David Dorn, the 77-year-old retired St. Louis police chief shot dead by looters when he tried to protect a pawn shop.

Nothing about Patrick Underwood, the 53-year-old black man killed — probably targeted because of his uniform — guarding a federal building in Oakland.

No, his campaign is too busy rushing left to lock down Bernie Sanders voters. A Biden spokesman said the candidate thinks cash bail is a “modern-day debtors’ prison.” After Minneapolis rioters burned police cars, a police precinct and retail stores, looting many of those last, many Biden campaign staff donated to groups paying their bail.

A true leader doesn’t play to his base; he asks the tough questions and offers answers that aren’t always easy for his allies to hear. Biden fails on all counts.