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Biden Accuses Trump of Forgetting the ‘Forgotten American’

Biden Accuses Trump of Forgetting the ‘Forgotten American’

(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden recalled a lifetime steeped in what he described as middle-class values and sought to dismantle Donald Trump’s claim to understand and fight for ordinary Americans, an argument central to the president’s 2016 win and his 2020 re-election campaign.

“We don’t deserve a president who goes out of his way to make life in America harder, crueler, pettier,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in a speech Wednesday full of reminiscences about growing up in the 1950s in working-class areas of Pennsylvania and Delaware. “He said he’s working for the forgotten American. Well, he forgot about the forgotten American.”

The former vice president argued that Trump’s policies -- from cutting taxes for the wealthy to his failed attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act to curtailing environmental protections -- are proof of his fundamental disconnect from Americans who just want “a fair shot, a life of dignity, peace of mind when someone gets sick you have a little breathing room when the bill comes through, a shot for a better for a better future.”

Biden delivered the address in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was the latest in a series of Trump-focused speeches he has given this month as other candidates, especially Elizabeth Warren, gain in public opinion polls of Democratic voters.

Pennsylvania’s status as a battleground state that could support a candidate from either party was on full display Wednesday. In addition to Biden’s speech, Trump will be in Pittsburgh for a speech to a shale industry convention. Vice President Mike Pence was in the Scranton area on Monday to promote the stalled U.S. Mexico-Canada trade agreement and Biden said in a statement then that Pennsylvanians “will not be fooled by Pence’s blind promotion of Trump’s irresponsible trade wars.”

Biden suggested that some of Trump’s actions are caused by his lack of “empathy at all for people. I’ve not seen it exist, unlike any other president I’ve worked with.”

Biden recalled the “longest walk” his father had to make, to tell him that he’d lost his job and that tougher financial times were ahead. “I’m not sure Donald Trump has any idea what I’m talking about when I talk about the longest walk. I think the longest walk his father ever made was to drop off $400 million in his trust account,” he said. “I’d like to have had that problem.”

Biden listed proposals that he argues would help the middle class, including adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act, creating new income-based repayment options for student debt, eliminating stepped-up basis tax loophole and ending the 2017 Trump tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

Biden’s speech was also heavy on biographical details that offer a stark contrast with Trump’s upbringing as the son of a multimillionaire real estate developer. Biden was born in Scranton and lived there until he was 10, moving to Delaware after his father lost his job in Pennsylvania.

Biden has often used his Scranton roots as a way to emphasize his deep connection to working-class issues and voters. He was spotted in Scranton in early April filming a campaign launch video, but his team ultimately chose to launch his campaign with a statement about what he believes is the threat Trump poses to American values.

Lackawanna County, home to Scranton, has traditionally been strongly Democratic, but Hillary Clinton eked out only a small win over Trump, winning 49.8% of the vote to Trump’s 46.3%.

Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by fewer than 45,000 votes out of nearly 6 million cast in the state. For two decades, the state consistently voted for Democrats in presidential elections, though it had become a battleground in recent cycles.

Trump tried to make an issue of the Biden family’s move during a campaign rally in central Pennsylvania in May. “Biden deserted you,” Trump said then. “I guess he was born here but he left you, folks. He left you for another state.” Biden dismissed the attack, noting that has was 10 when the family moved.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jennifer Epstein in Washington at jepstein32@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley

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