Biden suggests he’d like to hit ‘macho guy’ during latest campaign stop

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — President Joe Biden returned home to Pennsylvania for his final stop on the vice presidential campaign trail on Saturday. Kamala Harris and unleash again, offering the type of unfiltered political sentiment that become quite common in recent weeks.

Biden criticized Harris’ rival, the former Republican president Donald Trumpand his supporters on policy issues during a speech in Scranton, but then suggested he would hit back—literally—with faux machoism.

“There is one more thing that Trump and his Republican friends want to do. They want huge tax cuts for the rich,” Biden told his local carpenters union. Then, apparently referring to people who support Trump, he added: “I know some of you are tempted to think this is macho.”

“I’ll tell you what, man, when I was in Scranton, we had a little trouble breaking the story every now and then,” Biden continued. “You want to kick these guys in the ass.”

During a rally Saturday night in North Carolina, Trump poked fun at Biden by asking the crowd, “I don’t even know, is he still here?”

Biden’s comment in Scranton drew laughter from the crowd. But it was another moment in which he strayed from the political script, as is often the case with presidents these days—though he played a decidedly limited role in promoting Harris, making only a few campaign stops for his former partner.

Earlier this week, Biden caused an uproar when he responded to racist comments at a recent Trump rally made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who called the territory of the American island of Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

“The only trash I see out there are his supporters,” Biden said in response.

White House press secretaries changed the official transcript Biden’s remarks, prompting objections from federal workers who transcribe the president’s words for posterity, according to two U.S. government officials and an internal email obtained by The Associated Press.

And a mention of “garbage” followed Biden – during a recent stop at his campaign headquarters in New Hampshire – statement about Trump“We need to lock him up,” before quickly correcting his comments by noting that he meant Democrats need to “lock him up politically.”

During Saturday’s speech in Scranton, Biden also traditionally urged those in attendance to vote, saying they owe it to themselves to do so “for yourselves and your families, the people you grew up with, the people you come from.”

“Don’t forget where you come from,” Biden boomed at one point to cheers and applause. “Don’t leave behind the people you grew up with.”

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Weissert reported from Washington.