President Joe Biden on Wednesday needle rival Donald Trumpas he addressed the former president as he welcomed the endorsement of the North America’s Building Trades Union.
“You are the best in the world,” Biden said as he addressed the NABTU Legislative Conference in Washington DC. “You know, you stood with me in 2020 and because of you I am standing here as President of the United States of America. America. Thanks to you, we will make Donald Trump a loser again in 2024. Are you ready for it?
“So it’s Scranton values or Mar-a-Lago values,” Biden continued, drawing a contrast between his background and Trump’s as he repeated an economic argument rolled out during campaign stops in Pennsylvania last week. “These are competing visions of the economy at the heart of this election.”
Polls show economic issues top the agenda for many voters in what is expected to be a close race, although surveys have shown Trump getting more favorable marks than Biden on the economy.
The president later doubled down on his differences with Trump in his speech on Wednesday, saying working-class voters are likely familiar with the kind of elites Biden says Trump represents.
MORE: A potential Trump-Biden fight could hinge on the economy. Here’s how their plans differ.
“Folks, the choice is clear: Donald Trump’s vision of America is one of vengeance and retribution, a defeated former president who sees the world from Mar-a-Lago and bows to billionaires, who looks down on American union workers,” he said. Biden. said.
“Think about the boys you grew up with [that] You’d like to go into the corner and just send them straight to the left,” Biden said. “I’m not suggesting we hit the president.”
Biden — who has been hammered by Trump and Republicans over high inflation and the cost of living — said Trump repeatedly promised to focus on so-called infrastructure week when he was president, but that he “never built anything” in four years . compared to the Biden White House’s successful effort to invest in new infrastructure.
Biden also blasted his predecessor for Trump’s alleged treatment of contractors, as a businessman: “He didn’t keep his word.”
“This man has never worked a day in blue-collar boots,” he said of Trump.
Biden also took sarcastic shots at Trump’s history of outlandish comments — reversing a frequent attack by Trump on Biden’s own well-known habit of verbal gaffes and misstatements.
“Donald Trump still thinks windmills cause cancer,” Biden said, laughing as he made the sign of the cross. ‘That’s what he said. And by the way, remember when he was trying to deal with COVID he suggested just injecting a little bleach into your veins? He missed it – it all went to his hair. Look, I shouldn’t do that. said that.”
At another point, however, Biden apparently read a stage direction to “pause” during his speech, presumably for applause. It was a familiar mistake for the president, who looked confused for a moment as he read it before breaking into a broad smile as he seemingly realized his mistake.
In the audience, many members wore T-shirts that read “Joe walking the line,” with an image of the president wearing his signature aviator sunglasses.
NABTU President Sean McGarvey praised Biden in a statement Wednesday announcing the union’s endorsement, adding to the list of labor groups backing Biden.
NABTU also endorsed Biden over Trump in the 2020 election. Trump is backed by some other high-profile unions, including unions representing Border Patrol agents and police.
“Joe Biden has proven to be the perfect leader at the perfect time for this country and the working men and women who built it,” McGarvey said in his statement.
He said NABTU, a coalition of unions with three million members, plans to mobilize its members to vote for Biden in the fall.
Biden jabs Trump about hair and ‘Mar-a-Lago values’ as he addresses union originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
