Biden suggests he’d like to smack ‘macho guys’ during final campaign stop
SCRANTON, Pa.– President Joe Biden returned to his hometown in Pennsylvania and made a final campaign stop for vice president on Saturday Kamala Harris and unleashed again – offering the kind of unfiltered political sentiments that have has become quite common the past few weeks.
Biden criticized Harris’ rival, the former Republican president Donald Trumpand his supporters on policy issues during a speech in Scranton, but then suggested he would strike back – literally – at phony “macho guys.”
“There’s one more thing Trump and his Republican friends want to do. They want a huge tax cut for the rich,” Biden told the local chapter of the carpenters union. Then, apparently referring to people who support Trump, he added: “I know some of you are tempted to think they’re macho guys.”
“I’ll tell you what, man, when I was in Scranton, we had a little trouble at times trying to figure out the plot,” Biden continued. “These are the kind of guys you’d like to kick in the ass. .”
At a rally later Saturday evening in North Carolina, Trump poked fun at Biden, asking the crowd, “I don’t even know, is he still there?”
Biden’s comments in Scranton drew laughter from the audience. But it was another moment where he deviated from the political script, something that is now happening often with the president — even though he has played a decidedly limited role in promoting Harris and made few campaign stops for his former running mate.
Earlier this week, Biden caused a stir by responding racist comments at a recent Trump rally made by the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who called the American island territory of Puerto Rico a ‘floating waste island’.
“The only trash I see floating out there are his supporters,” Biden said in response.
White House press officials changed the official transcript of Biden’s comments, drawing objections from federal employees who are transcribing what the president says for posterity, according to two U.S. government officials and an internal email obtained by The Associated Press.
And the reference to “garbage” followed Biden – during a recent stop at a campaign office in New Hampshire – Trump’s statement“We need to lock him up,” before quickly amending his comments to note that he meant Democrats should “lock him up politically.”
Biden’s comments on Saturday come at a time when gender issues and diverging party loyalties between men and women have emerged as a key feature of the campaign.
Trump has pushed masculine tropes in an effort to recruit more male voters during his campaign. He supported a return to traditional gender roles and leaned on themes such as ‘ protect women Whether they like it or not during the closing days of the campaign.
Harris has taken a very different approach, promising to protect access to abortion and increase government spending to help families cover the costs of housing and child care.
Although he spent decades as a senator from Delaware, Biden spent his early childhood in Scranton and Saturday’s event was in several ways a homecoming for the sidelined president. He spoke at the same union building he visited on Election Day in 2020
“Let them know how important this election is,” Biden told the crowd of about 200 enthusiastic supporters. When he remarked, “I’m nothing special,” an audience member shouted back, “You sure are,” prompting chants of “Thanks, Joe.”
The president urged those in attendance to vote “for yourselves and your families, the people you grew up with, the people you come from.”
“Don’t forget where you came from,” Biden thundered to shouts and applause. “Don’t leave behind the people you grew up with.”
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Weissert reported from Washington.