Former President Barack Obama told Floridians on Saturday not to fall for the “okey-doke” from Republicans who say that Joseph R. Biden is a secret communist or socialist.
“Listening to the Republicans, you’d think Joe was more communist than the Castros,” Mr. Obama said at a campaign stop in North Miami. “Don’t fall for that garbage. Don’t fall for that okey-doke.”
South Florida is home to a significant population of Cuban Americans, many of whom are deeply skeptical of anything that resembles the political history of the communist island country of Cuba.
“Joe Biden is not a socialist,” Mr. Obama said. “He was a senator from Delaware — he was my vice president. I think folks would know if he was a secret socialist by now.”
Mr. Obama predicted that his former vice president would do a better job standing up to dictators than President Trump has.
“He likes to act tough and talk tough — he thinks scowling and being mean is tough, and being rude is tough,” Mr. Obama said of his successor.
“But when ’60 Minutes’ and Lesley Stahl are too tough for you, you ain’t all that tough,” he said. “If you got to walk out of a ’60 Minutes’ interview, then you’re never going to stand up to a dictator. If you’re spending all your time complaining about how mean reporters are to you, you’re not going to stand up to Putin.”
Mr. Trump posted an unedited video of his interview with Ms. Stahl on Thursday, saying he wanted to display the bias of Ms. Stahl and CBS before the interview aired as part of this Sunday’s programming.
Mr. Obama has returned to the campaign trail in recent days to try to give Mr. Biden a boost in key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Florida, both of which he carried in 2008 and 2012.
Mr. Trump carried both states in 2016 en route to his win over Hillary Clinton.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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