Biden to seniors: Dump Trump and his 'game show' presidency

PEMBROKE PINES -- Joe Biden slammed President Trump's "game show" presidency in wooing Florida seniors in deep blue Broward County Tuesday with a vow to protect retirement programs, get COVID-19 under control and invest in research to fight Alzheimer's and other diseases.

"We all know that this isn't normal, things didn't have to be this bad," Biden said in a half hour speech at the Carl Shechter Southwest Focal Point Community Center. "That's the entire story, in my view of Donald Trump's presidency, the fact that he's never been focused on what matters. He's never been focused on you. His handling of this pandemic has been erratic, just like his presidency has been."

More: FAU poll: Biden regains lead over Trump in Florida

As a result, at risk older Americans are shut in their homes while millions of others have lost jobs and are worried about whether they can put food on the table or afford prescription drugs, Biden said.

Biden pledged he would protect the payroll tax income streams to Social Security and Medicare, noting Trump has vowed to eliminate those revenue sources. Biden said he would not risk bankrupting Social Security and leaving penniless the tens of millions of seniors that rely on the program.

Biden also said he would raise the corporate tax from 21% to 28%, generating $1.3 trillion in additional revenue. From those additional dollars, Biden said, he would invest $50 billion into research on cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

What is clear is that in the span of 24 hours, Floridians got a sharp contrast between Biden and Trump.

More: Biden to woo Florida base after appeals to crossover voters

Biden's speech on Tuesday afternoon was attended by a dozen socially-distanced and masked seniors. Face coverings were not only required but the campaign handed out N95 masks to everyone wearing a cloth or blue surgical-like covering as extra precaution.

On Monday night in Sanford, Trump spoke to a crowd of thousands who were packed together, shoulder-to-shoulder with few if any wearing face coverings. The crowd was also treated to the sight of Gov. Ron DeSantis, without a mask, high-fiving attendees on his way to dais.

During his speech, Trump, who spent 72 hours hospitalized with the virus, made light of his own bout with a disease that has killed more than 215,000 Americans, and 15,000 people in Florida.

“I went through it. Now they say I’m immune. I feel so powerful. … I’ll walk into that audience," Trump quipped. "I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women and everybody, I’ll just give you a big, fat kiss.”

Before Biden's speech, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, Emma Vaughn, issued a statement saying the Biden camp "realized he couldn’t engage with Floridians from his basement, so his handlers decided to send him to the Sunshine State only to learn that there is no enthusiasm for Sleepy Joe Biden." Vaughn said Trump "continues to enjoy record enthusiasm."

In fact, the organizers of Trump boat parades in Palm Beach County said Tuesday they plan another massive show of support on Saturday.

More: Trump rallies in Sanford, 1st rally since COVID-19 diagnosis

Biden's speech in Broward was an opportunity to court a key Florida voting constituency, older voters with less than three weeks to go in the bare-knuckle campaign. The goal was to contrast the Democratic candidate's policy initiatives against Republican Trump's "game show" approach to government.

"All this president knows how to is to play games with people's lives," Biden noted, adding that last week Trump tweeted he would end negotiations on relief for Americans struggling during the pandemic only to do an about-face a day later. "Now he says he wants a deal. One day he is tweeting that the relief package is too big. The next he says it's too small. It's all a game. He thinks he's still on his game show."

The Biden camp's outreach to seniors, one of the biggest and arguably most reliable voting blocs, is a full court press.

This past weekend, pro-Biden senior citizen voters in the conservative Central Florida community The Villages joined a golf cart caravan and shouted "Go Biden." Before a speech by Vice President Mike Pence in the traditionally Republican stronghold south of Ocala, "MoveOn Political Action flew a plane towing a banner that read “Pence is why you can’t see your grandkids”

On Tuesday, ahead of Biden's Pembroke Pines appearance, the campaign rolled out another ad targeting senior voters.

In this one, a retired worker in Michigan says Biden "will keep Social Security" and "we need Biden in there to protect it." The ad follows two other ones aimed at older voters, including on featuring a Florida couple who are soured on Trump because of his "lack of action" on the pandemic.

"You hear the empathy, you hear that," said Karen Fortman of Cooper City, who attended the Biden speech with her husband Philip. "When you hear him talk, you know that underneath that he has studied what the issues are. He is not just yakking. He has it laid out."

Biden's courting of seniors is part of an attempt to close the deal in Florida, where yet another poll on Tuesday showed Biden with a lead over the president in Trump's adopted home state.

For all their bravado, the Trump campaign knows the state and its potentially decisive 29 electoral is up for grabs. Trump plans another trip South Florida on Thursday.

In fact, a new Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative poll on Tuesday said Biden has opened up a 51% to 47% lead over President Trump in Florida, perhaps on the strength of support from seniors.

"What's in our numbers and, you've seen in other people's numbers, is that the senior population is much more competitive," said Kevin Wagner, a professor of political science at FAU and a research fellow of the Initiative. "Joe Biden is doing better with seniors than Hillary Clinton did."

FAU's latest survey mirrors what other polls have recently shown, that Biden holds a lead over the president that is greater than the margin of error. But the gap in FAU's poll between the two rivals is less than what other polls have found.

On Tuesday, the latest daily tracking from data intelligence company Morning Consult had Biden up five percentage points over Trump, 51% to 46%. A week ago, a Quinnipiac University poll had Biden routing Trump 51% to 40%.

Wagner said he believed Biden's lead in Florida has to do with "the president's handling of COVID 19 which has obviously has been much significant in fatalities for seniors."

Wagner said that, for those voters who understand the connection between payroll taxes and funding for Social Security and Medicare, that issue may also resonate.

"To the extent that they do, yeah I think that would actually hurt him with seniors as well, I know the Biden campaign has been advertising on that," Wagner said.

Still, he cautioned that polls are only momentary snapshot of where voter preferences lie and he expects Florida to remain a battleground.

"I expect Florida to be competitive," Wagner said. "The Biden lead is not insignificant but Florida is likely to be a competitive state ... The big thing for most people is that in a state that Trump must win Biden has moved a little bit ahead."

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Biden to seniors: Dump Trump and his 'game show' presidency

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