Former Vice President Joe Biden predicted an “epiphany” among Republicans if President Donald Trump is defeated in November. He made his forecast while speaking with donors, according to a report from Bloomberg News’s Jennifer Epstein on Friday.
Biden said:
With Donald Trump gone, the fear of retribution has been taken away. If we win as big as we possibly can, there’s going to be a great, great epiphany that’s going to take place, as we Catholics say. And there’re going to begin to wonder about whether or not if they take me on and lose by just being obstructionist, whether they’re going to lose the rest of that blue-collar vote out there in the nation. It’s going to be a different time. Doesn’t mean it’s going to be, as they used to say when I was a kid, kumbaya and everyone’s happy, but it will — they know things have to be done and I think we can get a lot done.
Biden returns to rhetoric he hadn't used since the primary, saying he sees the potential for doing big things if Dems win big. "If we win as big as we possibly can, there's going to be a great, great epiphany that's going to take place, as we Catholics say," he told donors. Full: pic.twitter.com/njjGy6aquG
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) July 17, 2020
Biden cited an opinion editorial written by New York Times columnist David Brooks, titled “President Biden’s First Day,” in which he is described as having “working-class” sensibilities and “a background that Trumpian conservatives celebrate.”
“Joe Biden may turn out to be what radical centrism looks like,” declares Brooks.
Biden said he hopes the legacy of his presidency, if he wins, will be "making sure that we took advantage like Roosevelt did of a crisis and turned the nation in a better place than we found it."
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) July 17, 2020
According to NBC News’s Sahil Kapur, Biden stopped predicting a “post-Trump GOP epiphany” in November 2019 until recently.
Joe Biden doesn’t appear to have predicted a post-Trump Republican “epiphany” since November 2019.
When I asked his ally Sen. @ChrisCoons about that earlier Biden claim, he replied: “Have you heard him say that in the last six months?”https://t.co/CV3SQtanAZ
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 11, 2020
Kapur reported that “progressive activists” were displeased with Biden’s forecasts of a Republican “epiphany,” viewing the claim as a signal of possible bipartisan openness in the event of a Biden administration.
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