PITTSBURGH — Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden on Monday kicked off his White House run with a pro-union battle cry.
“The country wasn’t built by Wall Street bankers, CEOs and hedge fund bankers. It was built by you,” Mr. Biden said to cheers from a boisterous crowd at a Teamsters union hall.
Delivering the first stump speech in his run for the Democratic nomination, Mr. Biden pledged to rebuild the middle class that he said was under attack in the Trump era.
He starts the race as a front-runner in a field of 20 Democratic hopefuls. He plans to extend his lead with help from his union base, a strong relationship forged from 36 years as a senator from Delaware and two terms as President Obama’s vice president.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Biden picked up an endorsement from the International Association of Fire Fighters that promised to put union muscle behind his campaign.
In the speech, Mr. Biden was short on details of his plan to restore the middle class, which he described as in peril.
He frequently condemned Mr. Trump who he said catered to Wall Street and corporations at the expense of working families.
“Everybody knows it. The middle class is hurting now,” Mr. Biden said.
He said corporations got all the benefit from President Trump’s $2 trillion tax cut and didn’t pass it on to workers.
He vowed to expand unions, provide retirement and health benefits for workers and raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
“I make no apologies. I am a union man,” he said.
The crowd of members from trade, teachers and public sector unions began to chant, “We want Joe!”
The Pittsburgh setting for Mr. Biden’s kickoff speech highlights his connection to a state and a blue-collar constituency that is key to Democrats plans to oust President Trump in 2020.
Mr. Biden was born in Scranton and always touts his working-class roots, though he spent 36 years as a senator from neighboring Delaware.
After the Pittsburgh rally, Mr. Biden sets off on a campaign swing through the early-voting state of Iowa and South Carolina.
Mr. Biden entered the race Thursday with a bang. He raked in $6.3 million in the first 24 hours, the most of any 2020 Democratic candidate. But he hasn’t offered major policy ideas and has mostly cashed in on his status as a sidekick to the popular Mr. Obama.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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