During a “virtual” fundraiser Monday night, presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden bizarrely criticized President Trump—the “America first” president—for “incentivizing companies to ship jobs overseas,” according to the pool report. Biden also reportedly idicated that he’d take questions, but only if they were easy ones.
Comcast owns NBC News and MSNBC, and tonight its Senior Executive VP David Cohen hosted a fundraiser for Joe Biden.
Biden told Cohen he'd take questions but "If they’re hard questions, I’ve got to ask you to answer them."
Cohen replied, "I would never ask you a hard question."
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) May 12, 2020
David Cohen, the senior executive vice president of Comcast—which owns NBC News and MSNBC— hosted the fundraiser on Zoom.
Biden reportedly only spoke for ten minutes and had “uncharacteristically unkempt” hair during the event.
The fundraiser started at 6:04 p.m. and was attended by 115 people, the pool report said. Music was provided by Jay Buchanan, the lead vocalist for Rival Sons.
Cohen rattled off a list of issues important to him, including broadband accessibility, but said the most important aspect of a potential president is character. “The contrast between Donald Trump and Vice President Biden could not be more compelling,” Cohen said.
Biden reportedly told the media exec: “Your friendship and support has meant a lot to me.”
Predictably, Biden blamed Trump for the economic crisis facing the country: “This pandemic has closed small businesses. But the reason that so many won’t reopen is because over the years Donald Trump has put wealthy and big corporations first.”
“He loves to crow about the economy he built. But this crisis has made clearer than ever just who that economy was built to serve,” Biden added.
“Imagine if Trump had invested in manufacturing at home instead of incentivizing companies to ship jobs overseas. Imagine that being invested in expanding access to health care, instead of fighting to kill Obamacare,” Biden said.
Before the coronavirus pandemic tanked the economy, President Trump’s pro-growth policies had led to a 399 percent boost in manufacturing jobs over Obama/Biden’s sluggish manufacturing employment.
In the last 26 months of Obama’s presidency, manufacturing employment grew by 96,000 or 0.8%. In Trump’s first 26 months, manufacturers added 479,000 jobs, or 3.9%, 399% more jobs than Obama’s record.
“When Donald Trump ran in 2016, he promised to stand up for the Forgotten Man. But as soon as he got elected, he forgot that man and woman,” Biden said, apparently oblivious to the fact that the “forgotten man and woman” of the Obama/Biden years were loving Trump’s record on jobs until the draconian lock-down policies loved by Democrats destroyed them.
The Trump economy added more jobs in 2019 alone than the CBO projected would be created during the President’s first three years in office.
By February of 2020, nearly 7 million jobs had been created nationwide since the election, including more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs. Unemployment rates for minorities, Americans without a high school degree, and disabled Americans logged record lows.
“The prime-age labor force has expanded by 2.3 million under President Trump after shrinking by almost 1.6 million under the previous administration,” according to the White House.
But apparently, Trump’s historic economic resurgence was the wrong kind of recovery. Biden told his donors that he would unveil a detailed plan for “the right kind of economic recovery” soon, according to the pool report.
“In the coming weeks, I’ll be laying out a detailed plan for the right kind of economic recovery. This starts by rebuilding the backbone of their country, a stronger, more inclusive, more resilient middle class to withstand the next public health crisis or whatever comes our way,” he said.
“Today, we have an enormous opportunity, not just to rebuild our economy, but to transform it, to make it more resilient, to build a new green economy, creating 10 million new jobs — good paying jobs, rip up the race-based inequities that affect every part of our society, restore the basic bargain that used to exist, which was: if you contribute to the success of the enterprise you’re involved with, you share in the reward.”
Biden reportedly “joked” that he’d take a few questions as long as they weren’t challenging questions.
“Dave, I’ll answer them quickly if they’re easy questions. If they’re hard questions, I’ve got to ask you to answer them,” he said.
Cohen responded: “You know, I would never ask you a hard question.”
Despite this promise, Cohen asked Biden to outline his strategy for winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. And if he’s planning on trying to expand the map beyond these (formerly) blue wall states.
Biden largely ducked the question. “The voters across these states are like people from my old neighborhood,” Biden said. “The people I grew up with. Long before this pandemic, working families were having a hard time.”
After accusing the president of “incentivizing companies to ship jobs overseas,” Biden said he believes voters are looking for a president with “authenticity and honesty.”
“That’s what I promise you’ll get from me: authenticity and honesty. We can do this,” he said, concluding his remarks.
Biden, along with the Democratic National Committee, raised a total of $60.5 million in April.
President Trump’s reelection campaign, along with the Republican National Committee, brought in more than $61.7 million last month, bringing their total haul cycle to date to over $742 million.
The joint GOP entities boasted over $255 million cash on hand while Biden reported only $26.4 million in his campaign account at the end of March. The DNC did not release cash-on-hand figures for April.
“Once again the Trump campaign’s colossal fundraising haul reaffirms that President Trump will lead an unstoppable juggernaut this November,” said Trump 2020 Campaign Manager Brad Parscale in a statement. “While the do-nothing Democrats have recklessly held up funds for our nation’s small businesses and played political games with the lives of the American people, President Trump’s consistent record of unprecedented action is met with overwhelming enthusiasm and support.”