Vice President Joe Biden no longer wants to take Donald Trump “out behind the gym,” but still sees high school dynamics at play in the 2016 election.
“Donald Trump and the Republican establishment supporting him… they’re the kind of guys we grew up with in high school who, because they either had money or they were popular or they were a big athlete," Biden said during a campaign rally Monday night in Dayton, Ohio. "There weren’t many of them — thought somehow they were entitled to treat people differently.”
Instead of telling the crowd he wishes he could “take him behind the gym” in response to Trump’s lewd comments about women — a statement Biden first made campaigning last week, and repeated earlier Monday in Toledo — the vice president made a substantive case against Trump.
Related: Dems Trying to Turn GOP Field into Trump's Collateral Damage
During his second stop of the day in the all-important swing state, Biden said he was “almost reluctant to talk about Trump,” but went on lambaste the GOP nominee. Biden told the audience Trump “scares the living bedevil” out of foreign leaders, and that he was called upon to give a speech to the Baltic States “to make the case Trump did not represent the U.S. and did not represent the Republican party.”
Biden also declared that “the way he’s demonstrated his character and his absolute paucity of knowledge about anything having to do with running this country should on its face be disqualifying.”
And Trump, Biden added, “sits at the top of a tower, a magnificent mansion and has no notion, no notion of what average Americans deal with every single day,” echoing comments First Lady Michelle Obama made last week in Arizona, where she said Trump didn’t share the country’s values because he’s removed from most Americans.
While Biden's colorful comments responding to Trump’s alleged treatment of women have drawn the most attention, Biden said his biggest issue with the election is that there’s been no discussion of policy, in part due to Trump’s many controversies.
"What really bothers me is this is the first election in a long time — and I’ve been there for eight presidents — it’s the first election where there’s been virtually no discussion about the really critical issues,” he said.
Biden predicted a win for Democrats next month, but warned of a looming problem for Democrats. Because there's been no talk of policy throughout this campaign, Biden said, even with a win Democrats may not have a mandate to pass their policies — and so voters will have to make the case for Clinton’s plans to Americans.
“Because of you, we’re gonna win this election, but because of Trump, we will not have litigated all the issues we should’ve litigated," he said. "So Hillary’s gonna need your help…to litigate those issues to the American people, let them know what she will do for them.”