In a relatively fresh line of attack, former Vice President Joe Biden spent many of his (heavily interrupted) minutes painting President Donald Trump as one of the elite he claims to so detest.
During a section about mask wearing, Biden made the argument that Trump doesn’t care about mask wearing — until an unmasked person appears to pose a threat to him. The former vice president told an anecdote about Trump leaping back from a reporter who wasn’t wearing a mask, frantically asking if the journalist been tested for COVID-19.
“‘I’m way far away from those other people,’ that’s what he said — ‘I’m going to be okay,’” Biden said, describing Trump’s attitude at his packed campaign events.
“He’s not worried about you, he’s not worried about people out there breathing cheek to jowl,” Biden added.
Biden made the argument more pointedly during a later exchange on racial sensitivity training.
“It’s a little bit like how this guy and his friends look down on so many people,” Biden said. “They look down their noses on people like Irish Catholics like me who grew up in Scranton. They look down on people who don’t have money. They look down on people who are of a different faith. They look down on people who are a different color. In fact, we’re all Americans.”
He also hijacked a favorite Trump talking point about the invasion of the suburbs to hammer the theme, saying Trump “wouldn’t know a suburb unless he took a wrong turn. I was raised in the suburbs.”
Trump revives his racist appeal to suburbanites pic.twitter.com/CoZPtDVkig
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 30, 2020
Biden’s attack on Trump’s depiction of himself as a populist, working-class hero with a deep disdain for the “elites” was a valid one. Trump was born rich, inheriting millions from his father, and attended an Ivy League school. Biden has working-class roots, and has long touted his early distinction as ranking among the poorest in Congress. If elected, he’d be the first president without an Ivy League degree since Ronald Reagan.
Trump, for his part, didn’t do much to distance himself from the snobbish patina.
Trump sneers at Biden: "There's nothing smart about you, Joe" pic.twitter.com/BfRJiYZRk9
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 30, 2020
“Did you use the word smart?” Trump sneered, regurgitating a debunked right-wing attack about Biden forgetting the name of his college.
“You graduated either the lowest or almost the lowest in your class,” he continued, leaning over his podium towards Biden while the former Vice President chuckled.
The President kept going: “Don’t ever use the word smart with me. Don’t ever use that word with me. There’s nothing smart about you, Joe.”
