Joe Biden is using a campaign stop in economically decimated Nevada to hammer President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans for not doing more to help Americans deal with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The Democratic presidential candidate told supporters Friday at a socially distanced drive-in rally outside Las Vegas that Trump “ignores you” and has “no urgency to deliver hard-working Americans ... what they need desperately.” He says Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell wants to let state and local governments “go bankrupt.”
During the event, Biden told his supporters that President Trump's personal conduct has been "reckless" since he was diagnosed with COVID-19 last week. Trump was released from Walter Reed Medical Center on Monday.
"His reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis, the destabilizing effect it’s having on our government is unconscionable. He didn't take the necessary precautions to protect himself or others. The longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he gets," Biden said.
Biden blasted Trump for pulling out of congressional negotiations for another round of pandemic economic relief and reversing himself Friday. Biden noted it’s been months since House Democrats passed a $3.4 trillion package for businesses, individuals, and local and state governments dealing with cratering tax revenues and increased costs.
Nevada has been hit especially hard in the pandemic economy as tourism to Las Vegas has fallen drastically. The state’s 13.2% unemployment rate in September was the nation’s highest.
Earlier in the day, Biden spoke at the East Las Vegas Community Center where he told supporters that he can’t win without strong support from Hispanics.
Biden is telling Latinos in Nevada that they can “determine the outcome” of the November election and help deliver a Democratic victory big enough to keep President Donald Trump from pushing “phony challenges” to the results.
Latinos are on track to surpass Black voters as the single largest nonwhite share of the U.S. electorate. Biden told a masked, socially distanced crowd that voting in decisive numbers is “the thing that guarantees significant influence over what happens next” because politicians respond to those that “delivered the vote.”
Biden drew parallels between his family lineage as Irish Catholic immigrants and much of the Latino community that he said is hurt by Trump’s hard-line immigration policies. Biden says “family and faith” link his experiences with the Hispanic community.
Early voting starts in Nevada Oct. 17.
Hillary Clinton won the state in 2016, but it remains a battleground.