Vice President Joe Biden said his party needs to spend more time talking to white, middle-class voters. | Getty Biden: Democrats haven't 'spoken enough' to white, middle-class Americans

Vice President Joe Biden joked Wednesday that he is “going to be living in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan” in the coming months as the Democratic Party looks to reconnect with white, middle-class voters ahead of November’s general election.

Biden told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Democrats have increasingly failed to connect with white, middle-class Americans, a group with which Republican nominee Donald Trump has consistently polled well. The vice president said that while Democrats have continued to advocate for policies that would benefit those voters, they have not spent enough time assuring them that Democrats understand their problems.


“I think the Democratic Party overall hasn't spoken enough to those voters. They've done the right thing for the voters. Haven't spoken to them,” Biden said. “We have the right policies but I don't think we spend enough time.”

Diagnosing the problem, Biden said both parties, but especially Democrats, have become too distracted by the conveyor belt of crises politicians deal with and as a result have forgotten to engage with white, middle-class voters.

“I think we have, in part, and the reason is we’ve been consumed with crisis after crisis after crisis,” Biden said. “And so I go into my old neighborhood and they go, ‘Joe, hey Joe, over here. What about me?’”

“I think there has been in both parties not enough -- this is going to sound strange -- enough respect shown to ordinary people busting their necks,” he continued.