Vice President Joe Biden speaks with passion about voting on behalf of Hillary Clinton and Catherine Cortez Masto at the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters.
Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016 | 2:12 p.m.
A Donald Trump presidency and continued Republican majority in Congress would make labor unions extinct over the next eight years, Vice President Joe Biden warned a crowd of nearly 800 union workers in Las Vegas today.
"If (Democrats) don't win the Senate and Hillary doesn't win the presidency, you'll be out of business," he said during a 30-minute speech at the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters office, at 4245 W. Sunset Road.
Biden, who visited on the same day House Speaker Paul Ryan touted Republican candidates in Southern Nevada, also called the Republican presidential candidate "too soft" on Russian leader Vladimir Putin and criticized him for having spoken in favor of Japan and Saudi Arabia having nuclear weapons.
"Does that seem like a good idea to you?" Biden asked as the crowd booed. "This man is devoid of any information on foreign policy."
Biden touted Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s initiative to provide free community college, making it available to the more than 3 million Americans who can't afford it now. Clinton's plan to close a loophole that lets some people sell family members’ stock without paying capital gains taxes would bring in $11 billion in tax revenue to support Clinton’s college plan, he said, adding that the loophole change would affect only 0.25 percent of the population.
"I've never met a single mother who doesn't hope her kid can get to college," Biden said. "We can make that come true."
Biden was introduced by U.S. Congresswoman Dina Titus, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, and congressional candidates Ruben Kihuen and Jacky Rosen, who stood on stage together next to the vice president.
Reid, who is retiring after 30 years in the Senate, introduced Biden, whose own long political career might end in January with the inauguration of the nation’s next president, as "an exemplary person for us to follow."
"If you have problems in your life, think of Joe Biden," Reid said, citing Biden's loss of his first wife and daughter in a 1972 car crash, then the death of his son Beau last year to brain cancer. "Don't worry; you're going to be OK."
Titus referred to an ongoing dispute between Biden and Trump. If the two were to get in a physical fight, "My money's on Smokin' Joe Biden,” she said as the crowd cheered.
Missing from today's Las Vegas rally was U.S. Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto, who was scheduled to speak with Biden in Reno this afternoon.
Biden was in Las Vegas for the second time this month; he also spoke at Culinary Local Union 226 headquarters on Oct. 13, urging early voting for Clinton and Cortez Masto.
