Presidential candidate Vice President Joe Biden speaks about uniting the country during campaign stop at Union Terminal. Photo by Tai Sims for The Cincinnati Herald
By Herald Staff
Biden speaks to Cincinnati Blacks
Former Vice President Joe Biden, in a campaign stop at Union Terminal in Cincinnati Monday evening said he will provide “healing and hope” for Americans if elected the country’s President on November 3.
“That’s the president’s job,” he said. “One America.”
Biden was critical of how President Donald Trump has handled the coronavirus and the way he has divided the country through his racial comments.
“I am a proud Democrat,” he said, but added if he’s elected President he will serve all Americans, regardless of their party affiliation, those who voted for him and those who supported President Trump.
He also had a message for Cincinnati’s African American community.
“Folks, we’re so much better than this. Despite the crisis we face, we have an enormous opportunity. Like America’s done, unlike any other country, after every crisis, we’ve always come out of the crisis stronger. We now have an opportunity to build back and build back better, to get everyone a fair return on their work, an equal chance to get ahead, begin to reward work, not just wealth. For communities of color here in Cincinnati and all across the country, the question is, ‘How do we break the cycle, wherein good times, they lag. In bad times, they get hit first and harder?’ In a recovery, they’re the last and toughest to bounce back.
“The answer is justice, justice, criminal justice, police reforms. I know this nation is strong enough to both honestly face systemic racism and strong on it to provide safe streets for our families and small businesses that too often bear the brunt of looting and burning, which is never justified. We have no need though for armed militia roaming the streets. We should have no tolerance for extremist White supremacist groups menacing our communities.’’
Biden spoke to the audience inside the terminal, which was limited to special guests due to the coronavirus
Supporters for both candidates stood holding signs on opposite street corners in front of the terminal.
The 2020 election, he said one of the most important in U.S. history, not because he’s a candidate, but what’s at stake. This election will determine the direction of the country for the next decade, he said.
Biden talked about Americans having to make hard choices during the coronavirus pandemic. “Worry about whether the school their child is enrolled in, is going to be able to be open or what do they do if I still have a job, but I have a young child? If I go to work and their school’s not open, who takes care of them? How do we do that? They see the people at the top doing better and better, even in the midst of this God-awful recession, while they’re left to wonder. I mean they’re have to wonder, ‘Who’s looking out for me?’
“That’s Donald Trump’s presence. More than 215,000 people dead from COVID-19. Experts are telling us, we may lose up to another 200,000 lives, by end of January, all because the president is only worried about one thing, the stock market, because he refused to follow science.’’
Kate Schroder, Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the 1st District, attended. She said the “energy for change” never has been stronger. She said Trump and her opponent, GOP Congressman, Steve Chabot have “divided us and torn us apart.”
Biden also stopped Monday in Toledo, while Vice President Mike Pence campaigned in Columbus.
Trump won Ohio by 8 percentage points in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. Polls, however, showed the two candidates in a tight race in Ohio.
In her remarks, Kate Schroder addressed healthcare — a top issue both in Ohio and across the country. A cancer survivor who lives with a pre-existing condition, Schroder criticized the outrageous Republican attacks on healthcare throughout this pandemic.
“President Trump and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly worked to take away access to healthcare and coverage for pre-existing conditions. They continue to today — even in the middle of a pandemic. Like Joe Biden, I believe access to healthcare is a human right, and it’s not okay to play politics with people’s lives.”
Schroder also underscored the need for new leadership. “Our country can’t afford another four years of a president who puts himself before our country. And we can’t afford another two years of Republicans like Steve Chabot who enable him. It’s time for change.”
Biden also paid tribute to the Cincinnati Reds player Joe Morgan, a member of The Big Red Machine, who passed Sunday. “Joe actually played for a year with the Phillies, but he had fans all over the country,” Biden said. “It’s amazing to be both the heart when he was a second baseman, and the voice as one of the great baseball announcers in history, of the same club. I mean, that’s a pretty incredible accomplishment. And so, my best to his family and to his fans.”