Biden’s anti-Trump theme: Stop fighting, ‘start fixing’
Published on: Monday, May 20, 2019
PHILADELPHIA: Democrat Joe Biden made a passionate appeal for national unity but also took square political aim at Donald Trump, branding the president a “divider in chief” who must be ousted in 2020.
At a boisterous rally in Philadelphia, the former vice president urged voters to end the mean-spirited pettiness and partisan squabbles that have left Americans angry and dispirited in recent years.
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“This nation needs to come together,” the veteran politician told a crowd estimated at 6,000 in Philadelphia, in the largest rally of his nascent campaign.
“Our president is the divider in chief,” he added, accusing Trump of demonizing opponents and using scapegoats to fuel animosity.
“If the American people want a president to add to our division, to lead with a clenched fist, closed hand and a hard heart, to demonize opponents and spew hatred, they don’t need me,” Biden said in a raised voice. “They’ve got President Donald Trump.”
Biden, 76, came to Washington in a less polarized era, and he cited his work across the aisle during his 36 years in the US Senate to assure Democrats that “compromise is not a dirty word” and can lead to successes going forward.
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“Let’s stop fighting and start fixing,” he said.
The number two to popular president Barack Obama is now making his third White House bid, and relishes his prime position atop the pack of 2020 Democratic contenders.
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But the party eminence appeared to ignore the primary jockeying with his Democratic rivals and cast his eye directly at the general election battle against Trump.
After a month of more modest events, the large-scale rally in Pennsylvania’s largest city highlighted the importance Democrats place on winning back the swing state that Trump snatched in 2016. Biden was born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the sun-splashed downtown event was a nod to his modest roots.
But far from being the underdog, Biden is looking to cement his status as the man to beat.
He is a blue-collar voter whisperer who claims he is best positioned to defeat Trump. But Biden must also balance the concern that while he is the most experienced candidate out there, he embodies the Washington insider cachet that many voters rejected in 2016 when they chose Trump over former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
“Maybe he’s a little bit establishment, but he was always Joe from Scranton,” Mickey Kirzecky, a health care consultant who attended the rally, told AFP.
“He still has that, and I think that’s going to be tough for Trump to fight.”
Polls give Biden a growing lead over the 22 other hopefuls.
The latest RealClearPolitics aggregate puts him at 39.1 percent support, more than double the 16.4 percent of his nearest rival, liberal Senator Bernie Sanders.
No one else is in double digits.
As voters start paying more attention, Biden—who to date has campaigned mostly in broad strokes—will be under pressure to flesh out policies on everything from health care and wages to immigration.
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