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'Totally Irresponsible': Joe Biden Hammers Trump's Character in Ohio

Vice President Joe Biden put his working class folksiness to work for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton in northeastern Ohio on Thursday.
Image: Joe Biden
Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, in Cleveland.David Dermer / AP

CLEVELAND — Vice President Joe Biden put his working class folksiness to work for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton in northeastern Ohio on Thursday, delivering blow after blow to Republican nominee Donald Trump.

"This is a guy born with a silver spoon in his mouth that now he's choking on because his foot's in his mouth along with his spoon!" Biden began the day in Warren, Ohio, arguing that Trump simply “doesn't understand” the realities of working and middle class people.

"My biggest problem with Donald Trump," the vice president continued, "is not his cockamamie policies, it's the way he treats people."

Biden repeatedly hammered Trump on issues of national security — as he did in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania during his first joint campaign event with Clinton in August.

"The man is totally irresponsible," said Biden. He described how Trump naming President Barack Obama the “founder of [the terror group] ISIS” potentially jeopardized the safety of American lives abroad.

"Donald Trump is simply not qualified to be commander in chief," Biden asserted at his final stop of the day in Parma, Ohio.

But Biden’s pitch was as much fear-Trump based as it was don’t-fear-Clinton based.

"I know some of you are mad at Hillary, I know some of you look at her and say — let me tell you something man, she gets it," said Biden in Warren’s United Automobile Workers Local 1714 hall.

This message was perhaps specifically tailored to one of Hillary Clinton’s demographic weak spots: white working class men. Both official Clinton campaign events were held in union halls in majority white areas of Ohio.

Image: Joe Biden
Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016, in Cleveland.David Dermer / AP

Biden repeated “She gets it” throughout the day, making the case that Clinton understands the needs of the working and middle class better than Trump.

In addition to his scheduled campaign stops, Biden stopped by Canfield, Ohio’s county fair to greet voters and lend his hand to other candidates.

"Hi, I’m Joe Strickland, I work for Ted Strickland!” Biden told fair goers jokingly as he shook hands alongside Democratic Senate candidate and former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.

Later he visited a Hillary Clinton field office in Parma and gave an abridged stump speech to volunteers.

"I’m Joe Biden, I work for Hillary," he said as he entered to giggles.