Seth A. Richardson

srichardson@rgj.com

3:50 p.m. update:

Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump lacked any form of qualification to be president, urging a high school full of supporters to convince anyone possible to vote.

Biden made the comments during a rally in Reno meant to get out the vote on the final weekend of early voting in Nevada. The presidential race in the Silver State is still razor thin between Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump. The Clinton campaign has brought in several high-profile surrogates in recent weeks, including Biden and President Barack Obama.

Biden reserved most of his speech for criticizing Trump, saying he was dangerous for the status of the United States abroad and took advantage of the domestic economy via not paying taxes and shady deals.

“He is the least-qualified nominee from any political party in the history of the United States of America,” Biden said.

The vice president especially noted that Trump, who has made multiple comments some have considered inflammatory, was bad for the general rhetoric of politics in the country.

“It’s so crude,” Biden said during a rally in Reno. “It’s dumbing down the discourse of America. It really does.”

Biden pointed to the three presidential debates between Clinton and Trump, which oftentimes grew quite heated.

“Think about the fact that there are tens of thousands of mothers and fathers who had to turn off the television because of the conduct of that man,” Biden added.

A crowd of several hundred gathered at Wooster High School to hear Biden speak. The vice president also made a stop at Simple Ice Cream Sandwiches in a late-election retail politics stop.

The campaign tried to cast a wide net with its pre-Biden speakers, from former Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley to union leader Priscilla Maloney. Democratic Senate Hopeful Catherine Cortez Masto joined Biden on stage, herself in a vicious race against Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Heck for retiring U.S. Sen. Harry Reid's seat. the Cortez Masto-Heck seat could determine which party takes control of the Senate.

The Democrats have had an increased focus on downballot races like Cortez Masto’s recently as polling numbers showed Trump slipping, but several attention-grabbing headlines this week from Washington could hamper some of that. News broke earlier this week that healthcare exchange rates would increase, followed by the release of FBI Director James Comey’s letter on Friday stating the agency was reviewing more emails related to nominee Hillary Clinton.

The setbacks come at a crucial time in the election when Democrats and Republicans alike are trying to rally their bases -- and independents -- to the polls.

Chris Wicker, first vice-chair for the Nevada Democratic Party, said it has been a rough week for the party, but the issues were overblown and the timing of Comey's letter was disconcerting. Healthcare rates were only rising minimally and the FBI was only looking at a new batch of emails that aren’t from the Clinton server, he said.

“I think you hit back with facts, but there’s no doubt that it is a complication in her campaign and the campaign has to be very clear to its supporters on exactly what is going on and what the facts are,” he said. “It’s bound to have some kind of an impact. It could, ironically, drive Democrats who feel Hillary Clinton is being treated unfairly by the press and by the FBI and make them more enthusiastic to go to the polls.”

Early voting numbers show some promise for Democrats, who lead Republicans by nearly 29,000 votes, though Republicans tend to vote in larger numbers on Election Day itself.

Original story:

Vice President Joe Biden is in Reno today to stump for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Democratic Senate hopeful Catherine Cortez Masto. The rally is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at Wooster High School. Follow along live with RGJ political reporter Seth A. Richardson as he live-tweets the event.

VP Biden coming to Reno on Saturday