Joe Biden warns Trump efforts to ‘suppress turnout’ in Philadelphia

Joseph R. Biden said Sunday that President Trump is “terrified” of what will happen in Pennsylvania if every eligible voter is able to get to the polls and predicted that Republicans will try to “suppress” turnout in the key Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia.

“Every day is a new reminder of how high the stakes are and how far the other side will go to try to suppress the turnout, especially here in Philadelphia,” Mr. Biden said at a “Souls to the Polls” campaign event in northwest Philadelphia.

“President Trump is terrified of what will happen in Pennsylvania,” Mr. Biden said. “He knows if you have your say, he doesn’t stand a chance.”

Mr. Biden will likely have to drive up turnout in Democratic strongholds like Philadelphia, including among Black voters, in order to offset Mr. Trump’s margins in more rural areas of battleground Pennsylvania.

The former vice president decried the disproportionate effects the coronavirus pandemic is having on the Black community.

“One in one thousand Black Americans have died from COVID-19, and if we don’t change between now and January, it’s estimated one in 500 by the end of this pandemic,” he said. “That is a mass casualty event in the Black community, and it’s totally unnecessary - totally uncalled for.”

With Philadelphia on edge after the fatal shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., a Black man, by police, Mr. Biden reiterated that he doesn’t want to see rioting and looting in response.

“I see in all the protests here in Philadelphia and across the country a cry for justice,” he said. “Protesting is not burning or looting, and violence must never be tolerated and won’t.”

“But the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, Walter Wallace Jr. - they will not soon be forgotten,” he said.

Mr. Biden pointed out that Mr. Trump carried Pennsylvania four years ago by about 44,000 votes, or less than 1 percentage point.

“We have to earn our democracy. We have to get out and vote,” he said.

Mr. Biden leads Mr. Trump by about 4 points in the latest Real Clear Politics average of public polling on Pennsylvania.

The Democrat is set to close out his pre-Election Day campaigning on Monday in Pittsburgh - the same spot where he held his first major rally this cycle after officially announcing he would run for president.