Biden makes case for Clinton to working-class voters: ‘She gets it’
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden hold hands in the air during a campaign rally today in Scranton, Pa.
SCRANTON, Pa. » Though he has cultivated a reputation as unscripted, Vice President Joe Biden can be practiced when needed, with an instinctive feel for his audience.
And as he joined Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail today for the first time this year, he shirked a conventional political argument on her behalf in favor of an emotional pitch aimed at working-class voters: “She gets it.”
“What Hillary is all about is making sure that every one of you, every one of you can look your child and your grandchild in the eye and say, ‘Honey, I mean this sincerely, everything is going to be OK,’” Biden told an audience of 3,000 that included his relatives and former neighbors.
For Biden, campaigning in 2016 looks a lot like 2008 and 2012, as his more than half-hour performance here showed, but with one big difference: He’s not on the ticket.
Biden passed on a run for the White House last year but is reprising a familiar role as a Democratic ambassador to the middle class and serving as the determined critic of Donald Trump.
“What bothers me the most about Donald Trump is his cynicism is unbounded,” Biden, the self-styled “White House optimist,” told the audience.
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
He used Trump’s trademark phrase against him, saying the joy Trump took in saying, “You’re fired,” was at odds with the values of Scranton residents.
“How can there be pleasure in division and ‘You’re fired’?” Biden asked. “He’s trying to tell us he cares about the middle class. Give me a break! And to repeat myself, (it) is such a bunch of malarkey.”
Biden said Clinton, by contrast, shares his philosophy of public service. The two share Scranton roots, which made this former coal town a natural site for their joint appearance. Biden spent his early days here before his family’s economic struggles prompted a move to Claymont, Del.; Clinton’s father was born here and worked for a time at a lace mill.
Among the day’s set pieces beyond the rally was a trip to the home Biden grew up in, just blocks from where Clinton’s father’s family lived.
“Hillary understands the hopes and aspirations of the people in Claymont and Scranton and every Scranton and Claymont in the United States,” Biden said.
Later, outside the former Biden home, Clinton pledged, “Nobody will love Scranton more than I will as president,” sidestepping a reporter’s question about the pockets of Trump support evident in the region.
The scene, Biden surrounded by Clinton campaign banners and with the Democratic nominee seated behind him, was a far cry from his last high-profile appearance here nearly three years ago to the day.
Then, Obama joined Biden for a campaign-style event here promoting the administration’s education policies that was timed to the fifth anniversary of the two joining forces as the Democratic presidential ticket. A Biden presidential candidacy was in play at the time, and the rally almost had the appearance of an early endorsement. Choosing Biden was “the best decision that I ever made politically” the president said then.
Weeks after that joint appearance Biden appeared to take a pre-emptive swipe at Clinton as he declared at a high-profile appearance in the presidential proving ground of Iowa that John Kerry, only months into the job, was “one of the best secretaries of state” in the nation’s history.
Biden ultimately ruled out a third presidential bid last fall by citing the continued emotional toll on his family after his eldest son died of brain cancer. Close aides say he stands by the decision even as he marvels at the campaign that has ensued without him, and at times muses about how he might have performed in it.
But on Clinton’s behalf, he gave a determined performance Monday.
“If you live in a neighborhood like I grew up in … if you worry about your job, getting decent pay, if you worry about your children’s education, if you’re taking care of an elderly parent after losing the other one, then there’s only one person in this election who will possibly help you, and that is Hillary Clinton,” he said.
When Clinton and Biden were to first appear here in early July, an appearance postponed after the Dallas police massacre, it appeared she would need all the help she could get appealing to Rust Belt voters over Trump.
Now that Trump’s public self-immolations have given Clinton a more comfortable advantage, especially in Pennsylvania, she is increasingly seeking the votes of independents and Republicans uneasy with the former reality TV star.
But aides say Biden’s role will still be crucial. Though Clinton’s standing is stronger than it had been among the type of voters Biden has often appealed to, the vice president’s role will be to help lock down their support and free up Clinton and others to expand the electoral map.
Biden will spend considerable time in the coming weeks in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, as well as Florida. Senior aides to the vice president are in regular contact with their counterparts at Clinton’s Brooklyn, N.Y., campaign headquarters, and the vice president himself has personally committed to Clinton to do anything she asks of him.
Biden will also campaign aggressively on behalf of Democratic Senate candidates as the party looks to regain control of the chamber. The presidential battleground map largely aligns with states where Democrats feel they have the best chance to pick up Republican-held Senate seats, including Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.
Clinton herself has revealed the extent to which she values Biden’s grasp on the middle-class psyche, incorporating some of his language as she contrasted Trump’s economic vision with hers.
And in her speech here, she also made it clear she would continue to call on Biden while embracing his last major fight as her own: the “moonshot” effort to find a cure for cancer.
“If I’m elected this fall, I’m going to ask Joe to continue the important work he’s begun,” she said.
——
©2016 Tribune Co.
23 responses to “Biden makes case for Clinton to working-class voters: ‘She gets it’”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
She DOESN’T get it!
kennedy sent a man to the moon
obama sent a man to the girls’ restroom
the female felon sent bill to other women to get it
Hilarious! “She gets it”. This is the woman who was “dead broke” when she left the White House—–and made $20million the next year! Oh, she gets it, alright. She gets over $200K a speech for blabbing to wealthy businesses. She gets to not drive a car herself since 1992. She gets to lie without penalty about mishandling of classified information while some poor enlisted navy smuck is facing felony charges and 10 years in the slammer. She “gets” to lie to families of the Benghazi dead at a funeral and the press lines up to protect her. Right. Hillary is all about “getting it” as in getting rich and getting away with it.
Please STOP bashing Hillary. She gets it. Went from dead broke to a multi millionaire… she created her own shovel ready job. She’s practically an entrepreneur!
That’s not a serious post, was it?
Agreed, I don’t think Tita Girl get’s out much……
I’m not a doctor but I play one on the message boards. So I prescribe a good dose of anti-nausea medicine if you can make it through that article without running to the toilet.
Well crazy Joe is right in a sense. Hillary does get it and so does Bill. What it the it you ask? Well for starters it’s massive transfers of cash to the Clinton Family Foundation and the Clinton Global initiative, mostly from foreign donors who have gotten and are expecting payback when Hillary ascends to the throne. All those cash transfers are virtually untraceable because nobody in the media finds it interesting enough to pursue.
what a bunch of liars, if she gets elected, every one of you could look in your children and grandchildren eyes and say honey I mean this sincerely we are broke because they raised are taxes on us middle class, so we got shafted when I made a mistake for voting for Hillary as our president.
can’t even afford a little red wagon for my small children and grandchildren.
Sorry to hear that but you better get used to it. Under his highness Barry Hussein income inequality has skyrocketed and wages have been flat. Expect more of the same when Hillary starts Barry’s 3rd term.
I meant to say I was speaking through the eyes of all the middle class.
The Chump is doing what he does best. Failing big time and when he goes under for the final time he will take all of you fools with him.
you must mean Hillary, I agree with that.
As expected, article fails to mention her promise for 200,000 jobs to upstate New York when she ran for senate. As expected, jobs dropped. Typical of her resume.
Better not go against the Clintons. Update on the hit list;…Former United Nations diplomat John Ashe died in June 2016 under “suspicious” circumstances. He was scheduled to testify in US District Court about the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton on June 22.
Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Conrad Rich was shot in the back and killed just after 4 a.m. in Washington, D.C. on July 10, 2016. He was allegedly set to talk with the FBI concerning 2016 Democratic primary fraud on July 10.
Author Victor Thorn, who wrote tell-all books about the Clintons, was found dead from a single gunshot wound on August 1.
Shawn Lucas, lead attorney in the anti-DNC fraud case against Hillary Clinton, was found dead at his home on August 8.
Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/3421412/hillary-clinton-implicated-in-four-mysterious-deaths-in-a-month-why-is-this-story-being-ignored/#gvgxgKe8HfCJGCgM.99
Don’t forget the congressional aide that was going to bring up sexual harassment charges on Bill, that was shot to death in a robbery attempt at a Starbucks that nothing was stolen and a personal security guard for Bill that was killed and his personal file on the Clintons was stolen when he was the governor of Arkansas.
While Joe and Rotten Hillary was bashing Trump, Trump unveiled his policy on Terror. Colonel North and many others said it made a lot of sense. Something Obama and Rotten Hilliary never did.
Crooked Hilliary can only talk stink because all she has accomplished is enriching herself and Bill at our expense.
Never mind the temperament, care about the lies and deceits. You don’t become a billionaire by having bad temperament.
In a couple of days we will see what rotten to the bone said to the FBI. Trey and Jason will take it apart.
Remember Preet. His Court is just as good as the other 92.
So many fronts she has to defend and all she’s got is his temperament?
Look at our Popolo POTUS. Next time Obama invites the BLM over please not after a black cop shoots a black armed criminal. They might loot, pillage and burn the White House.
hiLIARy “gets it” alright…not from Bubba either but how to “game the rigged system”.
The MOST unfit, deceitful, incompetent and greedy person on Earth. hiLIARy also has American Blood on her hands…Benghazi..and potential witnesses/whistleblowers (plural) who “were” (past tense) against them. Placing her greed for money & power over American lives!
ADD to the above hiLIARy’s HEALTH issues which she is hiding.
Clintons are the WORST of the WORST!
Does anybody believe Crazy Uncle Joe Biden? You have one in your family, the lovable uncle who is stark crazy? You wouldn’t buy a car on his advice, why would you vote for HilLIARy Rotten Clinton based on his recommendation?
Psh! ALL she “gets” is MORE millions for the Clinton Slushfund Foundation. The only person she’ll soon be able to relate to, is a convicted felon, doing 20 to Life. And she’ll “get” exactly what she deserves….night after night after night. 🙂
And now, just in, $1-5 million from Nigeria. State Department almost purchasing land from a donor to – who else – the Clinton Foundation.
Just wanted to let you know Trump addressed another massive rally in West Bend. He laid out his vision of the future and his plan to restore Law & Order. He appealed to the African Americans saying if you want lawlessness, joblessness, vote for no change. He also said the Democrats take for granted the vote of the Afican Americans and if elected she will do what Obama said – say anything and change nothing. Obama 2008.
That’s three Trump policy speeches to nothing because Rotten Clinton has nothing to offer.