Biden: Trump ‘Painfully Uninformed’ During Debate

Vice President Joe Biden tore into Donald Trump’s debate performance, saying that the Republican presidential nominee is “painfully uninformed” on the important issues and that his comments about the economy are far off the mark.

“Donald Trump is painfully uninformed,” Biden told a cheering audience at Philadelphia’s Drexel University at the Sept. 27 campaign event, according to Politico.

“No, no, this isn’t for cheering. I want to make an important point. And his policies are not very helpful for the country, but what bothers me about this race, and I know I’m sort of a one-man broken record on this, but what bothers me about this race is how palpable his cynicism is about the American people.”

The vice president made a pitch for Hillary Clinton, telling young voters — a demographic that polls show she struggles with — that she has progressive stances on issues like LGBT marriage equality, abortion and lowering the cost of college education. Biden also contrasted her morality to Trump’s.

Biden explained:

Look, I’ve been there for eight presidents, Democrat and Republican, I’ve disagreed and agreed. But every president I have served with, including the Republicans, has had a moral center about what it was to be an American. Can you imagine Ronald Reagan, the most conservative president we’ve had in a long time, can you imagine him saying, ‘It’s good business to take advantage of people’s misery,’ rooting for that misery? I really mean this. I am not joking. I am not kidding. What does it say about this man?

Biden was referring to an exchange between Trump and Clinton during the Sept. 26 debate, in which Clinton called the GOP nominee out for saying in 2006 that he “sort of hoped” for the housing crash that came in 2008, notes The Atlantic. Trump fired back, saying “That’s called business, by the way.”

“Last night, you got a good look at both the candidates, you saw them both,” Biden told the Philadelphia crowd, according to Politico. “Hillary demonstrated she’s a leader, she has courage, she cares about the circumstances of the American people, not just the super wealthy. She thinks everybody should pay their fair share. We simply can’t elect a man who belittles our closest allies, embraces dictators like Putin, a man who seeks to sow division for his own gain and his own benefit, a man who considers bluster and confuses that with strength.”

​Sources: Politico, The Atlantic / Photo credit: Marc Nozell/Flickr