Biden stumps for Harris far from the spotlight

[Thiệu Ngô]

The president couldn’t resist taking a direct shot at Donald Trump over economic policy: “These are the kind of guys you like to smack in the ass."

By Adam Cancryn


Far removed from the blitz of major campaign rallies this weekend, President Joe Biden on Saturday made a final plea for Americans to support Vice President Kamala Harris, calling next week's election the most important “any of us have ever voted in. “

“More is at stake for the direction of this country than ever before,” he told a crowd of union workers at a get-out-the-vote event here. “We need to elect Kamala.”

Biden used what will likely be his final extended remarks before Election Day to make an economic case for Harris in the city where he spent a chunk of his childhood, touting the progress of the last four years in bolstering union rights, expanding health care and reviving the economy.

Those gains, he warned, could all be reversed or ripped away if Donald Trump ends up taking the White House. And though he did not make explicit mention of House Speaker Mike Johnson, he drew on the Republican’s recent suggestions that the GOP would try to repeal the Affordable Care Act — spending a significant chunk of his speech detailing the millions who would lose their health care.

“This is not personal, just the facts,” Biden said. “[Trump] wants to take away the Affordable Health Care Act. That would have a devastating impact on the kids you grew up with, on the people you grew up with.”

Biden throughout his speech mostly stuck to comparing the two candidates’ policy agendas. But he couldn’t resist taking a direct — if somewhat confounding — swipe at the former president after warning he would seek to cut taxes for the rich.

“These are the kind of guys you like to smack in the ass,” Biden said, to laughter.

Scranton is a key swing area of this crucial battleground state. When he flipped the state in 2016, Trump lost Lackawanna County by only 3 points to Hillary Clinton. But four years later, Biden’s hometown appeal helped him carry the county by 9 points en route to a narrow statewide victory.

Still, in an acknowledgment that many union members may still be undecided or skeptical of Harris, he urged them to leave questions of character aside and vote based on who would leave them and their friends and families better off.

“This other guy doesn’t care about us,” Biden said. “I have vast disagreements with Trump and his personality, but we’re not talking about that. What will happen? What will happen if you trade in my administration for his?”

For those who remain skeptical even so, Biden added in a personal appeal to union members he’s known and worked with for decades, they should at very least put their faith in his judgment.

“You may disagree with some of the things in a Harris-Walz administration,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have picked her if I didn’t think she had the exact view that I had about hard-working people.”