During a speech at the University of Pennsylvania on Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden argued that in 2016, the Democratic Party “did not talk what it always stood for, and that is how to maintain a burgeoning middle class.”

Biden stated that he thinks the choice between protecting American jobs and engaging with the world is “exaggerated.” He added, “Look, in a sense, we wouldn’t be having this conversation about American jobs, in the way it’s just been phrased, legitimately, by the president, were it not for 171,000 votes, 171,000 votes in four states, that put us in this position.”

Biden continued that 2016 was the first campaign he could remember “where, my party did not talk what it always stood for, and that is how to maintain a burgeoning middle class. And the truth of the matter is, you didn’t hear a single solitary sentence in the last campaign about that guy working on the assembly making $60,000 a year, and the wife making $32,000 as a hostess in a restaurant…and they’ve got two kids, and they can’t make it, and they’re scared, and they’re frightened.” He further stated that while on the macro level, globalization has been a phenomenal success, but it has “left people behind.” And the global system is something the US needs more than anyone in the world.

Biden later said, “[Y]ou know, all those angry white men, you know, we talk about, that are racist. Guess what? Barack and I won them. Let’s get this straight. It wasn’t racist. They voted for a black man, twice in a row, but they didn’t this time. They didn’t this time, because they look out there, and they’re scared and no one’s talking to them.”

He also stated President Trump “has not created any jobs. He’s not going to create many jobs.” He also argued that it’s a “false choice” to try and decide between focusing on the white working class and being progressive.

(h/t Dan Merica)

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