Biden Delivers Call for National Unity at Philadelphia Rally

“Joe Biden, sometimes known to Democrats in this city as Pennsylvania’s ‘third senator,’ returned to the state of his birth on Saturday to deliver a forceful call for national unity, looking past the Democratic presidential primary to directly appeal to the voters who helped power President Trump’s victory in this state and across the country in 2016,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Biden… trained his eye squarely on the general election as he cast the contest against Mr. Trump as one for the soul of the country. And he struck a defiant tone toward those in his own party who had expressed discomfort with Mr. Biden’s emphasis on bipartisanship and his legacy of Washington deal-making, as he argued that the stakes of the coming presidential election should transcend partisan passions of the moment.”

Said Biden: “They say Democrats are so angry, the angrier a candidate can be, the better chance he or she has to win the Democratic nomination. Well I don’t believe it, I really don’t.”

He added: “If the American people want a president to add to our division, lead with a clenched fist, closed hand, a hard heart, to demonize the opponents and spew hatred — they don’t need me. They’ve got President Donald Trump. Folks, I am running to offer our country — Democrats, Republicans and independents — a different path. Not back to a path that never was, but to a future that fulfills our true potential as a country.”