Joe Biden tossed out red meat to Democratic voters in South Carolina Monday night, but, again, pumped the brakes on attacking Bernie Sanders head-on.
Biden voiced frustration over current American gun laws. ‘We protect geese, international geese, more than we do people,’ he complained. ‘This is bizarre, what we’re doing.’
He also directly threatened gun manufacturers. ‘I’m coming for you and I’m going to take you down,’ Biden said on the campus of The College of Charleston.
Talking about how his home state of Delaware and coastal South Carolina, including Charleston, would be underwater thanks to climate change, he promised to pursue energy policies that mitigated the effects of carbon – including ridding the U.S. of coal plants.
‘And we’re going to get rid of the ones we have now, because they’re nothing but pollution,’ Biden pledged.
Joe Biden tossed South Carolina Democrats red meat – including pledging to take on gun manufacturers during an appearance at the College of Charleston
While Joe Biden’s campaign took on Bernie Sanders in an aggressive way, the ex-vice president laid into President Trump during a Monday night appearance in South Carolina
‘We’ve got to get this guy out of the way,’ he said, focusing his energy Monday night on President Trump, not his Democratic rivals.
The choice was curious as Biden’s campaign had vigorously gone after Sanders earlier in the day for comments he made on ’60 Minutes.’
Sanders had pointed out that Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba was ‘not all bad,’ pointing to a literacy program.
‘Make no mistake: Bernie Sanders’ comments on Fidel Castro are a part of a larger pattern throughout his life to embrace autocratic leaders and governments across the globe,’ Biden’s senior campaign adviser Cristóbal Alex said in a statement sent out to the press. ‘He seems to have found more inspiration in the Soviets, Sandinistas, Chavistas, and Castro than in America.’
Sanders supporters online pointed out that President Obama, while trying to improve U.S.-Cuba relations in 2016, had pointed out that the Cuban government ‘made great progress in educating young people.’
‘Every child in Cuba gets a basic education,’ Obama had said. ‘Life expectancy of Cubans is equivalent to that in the United States because they have access to healthcare.’
The Biden campaign is also running a web ad in South Carolina calling out Sanders for thinking of mounting a primary against Obama in 2012, Politico first reported.
Biden had brought up that Sanders had been mulling taking on Obama, a story first reported in The Atlantic, during his victory lap speech in Nevada Saturday, as he was coming in a distant second to Sanders in the Silver State caucuses.
‘I promise you I wasn’t talking about running a Democratic primary against him in 2012,’ Biden said in a coded dig.
In the past, Biden has also made more of a stink over Sanders Senate votes on gun control, where the democratic socialist has historically been more moderate than some of his fellow Democrats because he represents a rural state.
But a consistent in Biden’s campaigning has been its inconsistency, as he continues to test out different messages on the stump.
The latest polling shows Biden still leading in South Carolina, though Sanders is in spitting distance according to a new poll from NBC News and the Marist Poll.
Biden – long been the favorite in the first-in-the-south primary – has the support of 27 per cent of Democrats and Democratic leaning independents. Sanders is preferred by 23 per cent of respondents.
The poll was largely taken before Sanders’ overwhelming victory in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday.
Another South Carolina poll that dropped Monday had Biden in front with a sizeable lead.
The ex-vice president had a 15-point advantage in a Public Policy Polling survey earning the support of 36 per cent of survey respondents, versus the 21 per cent who reported backing Sanders.
In the NBC poll, billionaire candidate Tom Steyer comes in third place with 15 per cent support.
Steyer didn’t make the debate stage last week in Nevada. He will, however, appear in the Democratic debate Tuesday night in Charleston, meaning both billionaire candidates – Steyer and Mike Bloomberg – will be on hand.
Steyer has focused much of his campaign’s efforts on performing well in South Carolina.
No other Democratic candidates had double-digit support in the state, NBC and Marist found.
Pete Buttigieg had 9 per cent, followed by Elizabeth Warren with 8 per cent and Amy Klobuchar with 5 per cent.
Besides Biden and Sanders, the PPP found that every other candidate’s was in the single digits.
Warren had 8 per cent support, Steyer and Buttigieg were both polling at 7 points, Gabbard had 6 per cent and Klobuchar was only polling at 3 per cent.
South Carolina Democrats will head to the polls Saturday.