President Biden: Justice Department is monitoring Akron police shooting of Jayland Walker

President Joe Biden broke his silence on the Akron police shooting of Jayland Walker Wednesday afternoon during his remarks in Cleveland.

“Before I begin, I want to make one serious comment about the shooting death of Jayland Walker,” Biden said. “The Justice Department and the civil rights division of the FBI field office in Akron, Ohio, and the local U.S. attorney’s office are closely monitoring and reviewing what happened.

“The FBI continues to coordinate with state and local partners to provide resources and specialized skills,” he added. “If the evidence reveals potential violations of federal criminal statutes, the Justice Department will take the appropriate action and I just want you to know what's going to happen.”

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Walker, 25, died after being shot over 60 times June 27 by Akron police officers following a brief chase.

The Akron and national NAACP and others are calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the Akron police shooting.

Biden touts pension funding assistance bill

The acknowledgement was made ahead of Biden’s planned remarks on the American Rescue Plan’s Special Financial Assistance program at Max S. Hayes High School in Cleveland.

The program promises to bolster pension plans and ensure that all multiemployer pension plans pay full benefits through at least 2051.

Previously, those funds, which are created by agreements between employers and a union, were expected to become insolvent in 2026.

“A lot of politicians like to talk about how they’re going to do something about it. Well, I’m here today to say we’ve done something about it,” Biden said, prompting chants of his first name.

The program will also ensure that all plans that were previously forced to cut benefits will be able to restore those cuts in full, maintain full benefits into the foreseeable future and be projected to remain indefinitely solvent, he said.

Among variations of his oft-repeated catchphrase — “When the middle class does well, everybody does well” —  Biden emphasized the importance of unions.

“There’s a middle class for one reason: American unions,” he said to cheers from the crowd full of union members.

Both Biden and Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown criticized Republicans in Congress for not supporting the bill.

"Not one single, solitary Republican voted for the Butch Lewis Act," Biden said as the crowd booed. “In fact, when this bill was moving through Congress, Republicans called these pensions quote: ‘rat holes.’ No, that was their phrase on the floor: rat holes. Who do they think they are? Who do they think you are, for God's sake?”

The act is named for Butch Lewis, a retired Teamster from southwest Ohio who worked alongside others on the pension restoration efforts.

More: Retired Akron-area Teamsters see hope but wait for full funding of troubled pension plan

Ahead of Biden's remarks, Ohio Republicans criticized the president's energy polices and accused him of not taking enough steps to stem the tide of inflation. Energy analysts told USA TODAY the cost of oil is driving up gas prices across the globe, leaving Biden with few options to bring them down at home.

More: Is Biden to blame for higher gas prices? Drivers pay more in 93 countries.

Republicans, for their part, contend more oil production in the United States would solve the problem.

“I think it’s absurd that Joe Biden is coming to Cleveland with anything other than an apology," U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance said.

Throughout the event, speakers including Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kapur emphasized Biden’s commitment to American workers and unions.

“The president that we have right now,” Walsh said, “is the most pro-worker president we’ve had in history.”

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Joe Biden speaks about Akron police shooting of Jayland Walker