Biden makes pitch for Hillary Clinton to Bucks County college voters

Vice President Joe Biden stumped for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at Bucks County Community College’s Lower Bucks campus on Friday.

In the parking lot, campaign volunteers registered attendees to vote.

The espoused topic of the speech was the economy, but Biden started by taking aim squarely at Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Delivering an off-the-cuff post-mortem of last week’s vice presidential debate, Biden said Donald Trump’s “inaccurate and indefensible” comments forced running mate and Indiana Governor Mike Pence to put out fires.

“I worked with him,” said Biden said to the crowd of over 700, calling Pence a “decent guy.”

Whipping off his suit jacket in the middle of his speech, Biden struck a note of American power and possibility in response to the Republican candidate’s narrative of America in decline.

“The point is, this is America,” he said. “We are who we are, we are incredible people.” An audience member yelled, “We’re already great.”

Touching on issues ranging from cutting the cost of higher education to eliminating tax breaks for the rich to competing in the world economy, Biden spoke for about 30 minutes and touted his foreign policy experience.

“China not only doesn’t have enough energy, it doesn’t have enough water,” he said. “The idea that they could compete and own the 21st century is bizarre.”

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and her surrogates are continuing their full-court press in pursuit of young voters, visiting three Philadelphia area colleges in the last month.

Friday’s Bucks County event kicks off five days of voter registration at universities and colleges around the Commonwealth, running up to Pennsylvania’s October 11th registration deadline.  Students at the Bristol campus had their classes canceled because of Biden’s visit, largely because of security restrictions.

“Don’t wake up on November 9th and see we lost Pennsylvania by 2,000 votes and say ‘if I’d only,'” said Biden. “Remember Al Gore.”

In an emailed statement, Republican Party of Pennsylvania Chairman Rob Gleason commented on the vice president’s visit.

“The DC Liberal Establishment continues to swarm the Keystone State for Hillary Clinton talking about continuing a failed status quo,” he said. 

Trump is scheduled to campaign outside of Pittsburgh Tuesday.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the length of Biden’s remarks.