Credit: Erich Martin/LevittownNow.com
Hundreds of Democrats filled the Snyder-Girotti Elementary School in Bristol Borough on Saturday afternoon for a chance to hear prominent Hillary Clinton supporters and the Vice President of the United States speak.
Vice President Joe Biden talked to the crowd about Clinton and Senate candidate Katie McGinty and asked them to get out and vote for them and other Democrats on Tuesday.
Through different speakers, the most important issues of the election for Democrats became apparent as they were spoken about: raising minimum wage, closing the wage gap, education finance reform, tax reform, infrastructure and climate change all came up throughout the rally.
Biden took time to call Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s comments and behavior towards women disqualifying. He added it wasn’t even an issue of politics.
Credit: Erich Martin/LevittownNow.com
“That somebody with that nomination would be getting up – this is not for applause or nothing, this is just simple fact – get up at 3:30 in the morning and tweet vitriol about a woman’s body and about what a pig women are … Look, folks, – all of those things on a character basis are just disqualifying in and of themselves. They really are.”
The vice president made a fact to highlight how Trump’s comments hurt the United States image on the international stage.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this guy is already doing grave damage to us internationally. No. I promise you I’m not exaggerating. He already is,” Biden said.
“Every single one [the world leaders I meet with] will ask me either the beginning or the end of our meeting, ‘Tell me, tell me it can’t be true.’ No, no, no, not a joke,” the vice president told the crowd.
Biden told supporters the country was in the midst of a financial recovery and called for closing tax loopholes. He said closing loopholes would bring more money into the government and help fund important programs.
“We have a thing called tax expenditures, a fancy word for saying tax loopholes. There’s one justification for tax loopholes – actually, two. One, does the loophole promote a social good; for example, we want people to be able to buy homes and their first home so they can deduct their mortgage interest from their taxes in order to help them buy a home. That’s a social good we’re promoting. We want people to contribute to charity,” Biden said.
Jill Biden speaking to the crowd.
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“The International Monetary Fund, Standard and Poor’s of Wall Street, all the mainstream think tanks, they say the single greatest threat to overall economic expansion in the United States and the world is the concentration of wealth. That’s the greatest threat because if it’s concentrated in the top 1 prevent, although a lot of them are good people, if it’s concentrated there, there’s nobody to buy their products.”
Biden said Clinton and McGinty will fight to keep social programs like Social Security in place. He said the two candidates for federal office will protect the “sacred obligation to preserve Social Security and Medicare, not privatize it.”
The crowd seemed enthused for Biden and met the outgoing vice president with cheers.
Starting out warming the crowd up, John Cordisco, the chairman of the Bucks County Democratic Party, began his remarks by welcoming everyone in the crowd and speaking to his home town.
“Whenever I have asked you in the past for help, you have been there. Whatever the case may be, you have been there, and you were supportive. Today I ask you one more favor. I need your energy. I need your passion, because Tuesday will be the most important any of you will see in your lifetimes,” Cordisco said, mentioning the need to make a statement on election day.
Attendees leaving the rally.
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Other speakers included Josh Shapiro, running for attorney general; Perry Warren, running for state legislator in the 31st district; Katie McGinty, running for senate; Steve Santarsiero, running for the 8th district congressional seat; the vice president’s wife, Jill Biden; and Gov. Tom Wolf.
Throughout the speeches, speakers made note Trump’s rhetoric in weeks leading up to the election, as well as Sen. Pat Toomey’s voting record in an effort to energize Democratic voters for Clinton and McGinty.
Rally attendees were enthusiastic as they emptied out of the school.
“I think Joe Biden is amazing,” said Linda Mead, who traveled from Langhorne with her husband to see Biden speak.
“It was good to see everyone in person, because now you know who you’re voting for,” said Nell Schreck, who traveled from New Hope to see the speakers.
