By PATRICK ADRIAN
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CROYDON — Former Vice-President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden appeared in Croydon Friday evening for a community event at the Loon Lake Campground and Function Hall, as part of his first trip to Western New Hampshire this election cycle.
Biden arrived at the event just before 7 p.m., where he delivered a short speech to an audience of Sullivan County residents and spent time with guests for photographs and informal conversation.
Biden arrived from Hanover, where he held an earlier afternoon event at Alumni Hall at Dartmouth College. On Saturday Biden travelled to Keene.
In Croydon Biden spoke outside, the podium positioned near the lake with the setting sun in the backdrop. A handful of canoers drifted behind the guest, occasionally holding up a Biden 2020 or Dump Trump political sign.
Former Claremont City Manager Guy Santagate delivered Biden’s introduction, in which he gave Biden his endorsement for the party nomination.
“Tough Joe won’t be bullied and Tough Joe will never give up the fight,” Santagate said, adding that Democratic voters need to not only win back the presidency but the state legislative representation in Sullivan County.
In his speech Biden said that his reason for running for president was two fold: to restore the soul of the nation and America’s middle class.
Biden focused a large portion of his speech to stressing the importance of American ideals and values, which he said have become lost under President Donald Trump.
“We can’t just campaign to beat Donald Trump,” Biden said. “He’s trafficking in some of the ugliest, darkest forces to run through this nation’s history. It has to be a movement, grounded in our ideals and values that define us as a country, that stands up for what we believe in.”
Biden said it was imperative to unite the country, saying that Americans need to repair that the current president is shredding every day, and to return to leading by the power of example and values like honesty and decency.
When addressing his concerns about the struggling middle class, Biden pinpointed similar priorities expressed by rival party contenders, but differentiated from them several in approach. Regarding health care, for example, whereas candidate Bernie Sanders calls for a universal Medicare-for-All model, Biden said he supports building a public option into the existing ACA, which would protect citizens from losing their insurer when losing or changing a job, which could be accomplished feasibly and quickly for only one-third of the cost of Medicare-for-all.
Biden also called for a rollback of many of President Trump’s tax cuts, saying that there are currently over $1.6 trillion in tax cut loopholes solely for the top tier of wealth and corporations. Biden said he would increase Title I grant funding to meet educational needs, and fund public research to study growing illness issues like Alzheimer’s and better treatment for veterans returning from war with PTSD.
To defeat Trump and his strongest supporters, Biden said that Democrats need to find unity in their common values and beliefs.
“We have to let him know who we are,” Biden said. “We choose truth over lies and hope over fear. We have to choose unity over division. And we choose science over fiction.
Donald and Debbie Goodwin, owners of the Loon Lake campground, hosted the event.
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