Former Vice President Joe Biden used his time speaking to voters in Northern Nevada Wednesday night condemning President Trump’s recent attacks as an attempt to knock him out of the race.
Speaking to several hundred voters at Truckee Meadows Community College, the former vice president and Democratic candidate for president took umbrage with recent comments by Trump, calling them smears and distortions.
“The American people know me, and they know him,” Biden said. “I’ll put my integrity, my whole career of public service to this nation, up against his long record of lying, cheating and stealing any day of the week.”
Biden’s remarks come roughly a week after the U.S. House of Representatives opened an impeachment inquiry in order to determine whether President Trump urged the leader of Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son.
For some voters, including Donna Harker of Carson City, Biden’s strong words were enough to solidify their support.
“I believe he can beat Trump,” says Harker. “Even though I think other people are qualified, I don’t know if they can beat Trump in the middle states, so that is one of the reasons I would lean toward Joe because I believe he can. He’s a scrapper. I think he’s a fighter. I think he can do it.”
But others still aren’t exactly sold.
Matty Stuart is a political science major at the University of Nevada, Reno. She isn’t sold on any one candidate yet, but says the debate between progressive and moderate Democrats is overblown.
“My biggest concern is the narrative of the moderate versus the progressive,” she says. “I think that the left tends to divide itself, and I think it would do the left good now to be united against the bigger problem, which is Donald Trump.”
While Biden is considered the front-runner in most national polling, the former vice president’s lead has slipped in recent weeks, especially in Nevada, where Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have made significant gains with Democratic voters.
