Nine weeks before Election Day, Rep. Tom Malinowski Tuesday afternoon did what has become just about the norm these days – hold a virtual town hall. Or what he calls a session of “Congress in your Kitchen.”

This was an event of Congress, and not a campaign outing, but the presidential election cannot be ignored.

Malinowski began by speaking about both the pandemic and civil unrest.

Regarding the latter, he observed without mentioning any names that, “There are people who want us to feel afraid.”

Looking for common ground, he optimistically speculated that there is general agreement among most people on three basic principles. They are:

Police brutality is wrong.

It is equally wrong for people to loot and burn down property.

And it is also equally wrong for “vigilantes” to fatally shoot people.

That kind of covers it all.

However, the gist of his comments was that the country needs a leader who calms things down as opposed to picking sides and ratcheting up the tension.

He rattled off a list of presidents on both sides of the aisle – among them Reagan and Obama – and said he’s confident they would have understood that “everyone who breaks the law is a law-breaker.”

As for the pandemic, Malinowski expressed alarm that the FDA may be politically pressured to approve a COVID-19 vaccine.

“I’m all for throwing tons of money” at vaccine development, but he said safety must be paramount.

“Absolutely no shortcuts when it comes to clinical trials,” he said.