Update at 7:50 p.m
LAS VEGAS – As President Joe Biden took the stage to Queen's “Another One Bites the Dust,” he went straight to claims that life in America is better under former President Trump during a campaign event Sunday in Las Vegas.
“Just think back to the state in which Donald Trump left the country,” he said after taking the stage, surrounded by stands full of people holding “Vote” signs with the letters in an image of Biden Trademark aviator goggles were incorporated.
The pandemic was raging and the economy was collapsing, Biden said – “and look how far we’ve come.”
After reviewing recent rosy employment news, he said inflation here is lower than in any other major economy in the world, and he quoted a Washington Post headline that America is having the best economic recovery in the world.
Preparation for the elections: See who's running for president and compare where they stand on key issues with our voter guide
Biden compared his hope for the nation to a recent interview in which Trump told media host Lou Dobbs: “If there is a crash – I hope it will happen in the next 12 months.”
“What kind of former president hopes for a fall?” Biden asked.
Biden drew boos at mentions of previous Trump exploits as if he were a silent film villain.
Trump visited a World War II cemetery in France where Americans are buried, Biden said, lowering his voice as if he were telling a personal story to a friend.
“And do you know what he said?” Biden said. “He said the people buried in the cemetery were idiots and losers.”
He shook his head at the idea that people who gave their lives for America would be spoken of in this way.
“That’s what this guy thinks,” Biden said of Trump. “Who does he think he is?”
Updated at 7:05 p.m
LAS VEGAS (`) — President Joe Biden took the stage in a gymnasium at the Pearson Community Center in West Las Vegas on Sunday night to deafening cheers.
He promised to “make Donald Trump a loser again.”
Update at 7 p.m
LAS VEGAS (`) — U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat who is up for re-election in one of the country's most expensive races, said at a campaign rally for President Joe Biden on Sunday in Las that control of the Senate and the White House will come from Nevada depends on Vegas.
“It depends on what we do here in Nevada,” she said, leading the crowd to chant the state’s name. “The elections here are decided by extremely narrow margins and that’s why it’s so important that we get out and vote in the presidential primary to make our voices heard.”
Nevada votes in the presidential preference primary on Tuesday, two days before the Nevada Republican Presidential Caucus.
Rosen said the caucus was intended to prop up former President Donald Trump.
“Just look at what the state GOP is doing this week,” she said. “They are so concerned that there are not enough votes for Donald Trump that they are holding a separate caucus to ensure his victory. In doing so, they cause mass chaos and confusion.”
Update at 6:40 p.m
LAS VEGAS (`) — The attentive crowd of about 200 people at President Joe Biden's campaign rally in Las Vegas on Sunday is far different from the crowd that came here last weekend to see former President Donald Trump.
For one thing, almost no one wears Biden T-shirts or the American flag. This may have to do with the fact that the venue on Vegas' west side is not surrounded by vendors selling campaign-related merchandise from pop-up carts.
Instead, most people wear their street clothes with bags from representatives of their unions.
A group of women wear red T-shirts that read “Moms Demand Action,” a reference to the nationwide group seeking stricter gun laws.
Update at 6 p.m
LAS VEGAS (`) — U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada's District 4 and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus took aim at former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally for President Joe Biden in Las Vegas on Sunday.
“A second Trump presidency would set a course that would set back our progress on voting rights, civil rights, equality, women’s rights, education, economic justice and equal opportunity by decades,” Horsford said.
He also spoke about how the U.S. economy has improved under the administration of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“This month alone we saw strong wage growth and employment gains of over 350,000 jobs in January alone,” Horsford said.
He spoke of “tremendous growth in new companies and startups” and a doubling of access to capital through the Small Business Administration in the last three years.
Visible in the crowd of about 200 were prominent Nevada Democrats Tick Segerblom and Pat Spearman.
The soundtrack between speakers included Beyoncé, Bleachers and Moon Taxi, as well as older artists Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac and Survivor's campaign favorite “Eye of the Tiger.”
Update on Sunday at 5:30 p.m
LAS VEGAS (`) — Students from local schools greeted supporters of President Joe Biden at a campaign rally on Sunday.
A high school cheer squad danced to pop hits in the foyer and a drum group from Gibson Leadership Academy pounded out beats in a basketball gym at the Pearson Community Center.
Carolyn Salvador Avila — a University of Nevada, Las Vegas student and president of the College Democrats of America — mobilized the crowd with Biden's policy positions and accomplishments.
She recounted how she was on the UNLV campus on Dec. 6 when a gunman killed three people and injured three others.
“He signed the most significant federal bipartisan gun safety law in nearly 30 years,” she said of Biden.
Former President “Trump has caved to the gun lobby every time.”
Original post
President Joe Biden visits a community center in west Las Vegas today to speak to supporters ahead of Nevada's presidential preference primary in two days.
He won a commanding victory in the nation's first Democratic primary on Saturday in South Carolina, where he received 96% of the vote, while his challengers Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips received about 2% each.
Biden will come to Nevada from California, where he held a campaign rally in Bel Air on Saturday evening.
A new NBC News poll shows former President Donald Trump leading Biden by 5 percentage points nationally – 47% to 42%, with a margin of error of 3.1 among 1,000 registered voters. Trump spoke in Las Vegas last weekend at a sports park ahead of the Feb. 8 Republican presidential election in Nevada.
Biden's event in Nevada, which will be about “the stakes of this election,” will be held at a community center in a historically black Las Vegas neighborhood that was founded about 100 years ago as an alternative to segregation in casinos and clubs elsewhere.
Reaching out to Black voters has been a key aspect of the Biden campaign in recent days. He called into four black talk radio stations in South Carolina on Saturday.
“We promised that Black unemployment would be at historic lows,” he told `M. “Well, it’s historically low now. We said Black wealth would increase, we have increased Black wealth nationally by 60% since the pandemic. Black small businesses are on the rise, the fastest rate in 30 years.”
In 2020, 92% of Black voters voted for Biden compared to 8% for former President Donald Trump, according to Pew Research.
But Trump has weakened Biden's support. An NBC News poll in November found that 20% of black poll respondents said they would support Trump if the election were held then.
An Associated Press poll in December found that 50% of a representative sample of black adults viewed Biden favorably and 25% viewed Trump favorably.
According to the U.S. Census, Nevada is 72.1% white, 30.3% Hispanic, 10.8% Black, 9.4% Asian, 5.1% more than one race, 1.7% Native American, and 0.9 % Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.
More:Why does Nevada have a caucus and a primary? What voters need to know about the 2024 election
Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to [email protected] or comment on Mark's Greater Reno Facebook page.
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