Biden stumps for Crist, Demings during South Florida stop, calls DeSantis 'Donald Trump incarnate'
MIAMI - With a week until the midterm elections, President Joe Biden arrived in South Florida Tuesday afternoon for a series of events, including a policy speech and stumping for fellow Democrats trying to hold back a red wave.
Air Force One, carrying Biden, and other officials landed at Fort Lauderdale International Airport shortly before 2 p.m.
He was greeted by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other dignitaries before his motorcade departed for a speech at OB Johnson Park in Hallandale Beach, where the White House said he would highlight Republicans' "very different vision" for America.
Biden spoke to supporters in Hallandale Beach, touting his Inflation Reduction Act and its benefits to voters.
"For the first time in 10 years, seniors are getting an increase in their Social Security check," he said to a cheering crowd. "So checks are going to be up, Medicare premiums are going down."
Biden was also scheduled to also hold a late afternoon reception in Golden Beach in support of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist.
In the evening he headlined a rally in Miami Gardens in support of Crist and Democratic Senate candidate Val Demings.
Biden lashed out at Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as "Donald Trump incarnate," zeroing in on a potential 2024 GOP presidential contender as he campaigned for Democrats facing uphill fights in next week's midterm election.
Biden made the stakes personal against DeSantis, a major adversary of the Biden White House. Biden suggested DeSantis was just another version of former President Trump and criticized him for "demonizing the LGBTQ population."
"This to me is one of the most important races in the country," Biden said. "Charlie is running against Donald Trump incarnate."
Crist noted that DeSantis wouldn't commit at a gubernatorial debate last week to serving out his full four-year term if re-elected.
"Governor DeSantis only cares about the White House, he doesn't give a damn about your house," Crist told the audience.
During his earlier speech, Biden touted his legislative record, chief of which was the package of measures to address health care and drug prices.
Biden has promised the legislation will bring down costs for senior citizens by allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, cap drug costs, decrease the cost of insulin and lower insurance premiums in the Affordable Care Act, saving some as much as $800 a year.
Joan Salvatore, who lives in Hollywood, said these savings will help her, especially with prescription drugs like insulin.
"I pay close to $20,000 a year, which is a little less than $2,000 a month," she said. "It's a lot of money. I really need this."
The president vows he and Democrats will protect and strengthen the federal entitlement programs while sounding the alarm when it comes to Republican lawmakers.
"You've been paying Social Security your whole life (and) you earned it," Biden said. "Now these guys want to take it away. Who the hell do they think they are?"
Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, speaking on CNN, said that's not true.
"I believe we have to preserve them and make sure we keep them," he said. "What I want to do is make sure we live within our means and make sure we preserve those programs."
Local Republicans say the president's dire warnings were right out of the Democrats' playbook.
"It's the same tired old rhetoric," said Broward Republican Committee member Richard DeNapoli said. "He's just going to do a lot of fear-mongering about republicans trying to take away social security and Medicare."
Biden's visit to Florida, where Democrats are trailing in both the Senate and the gubernatorial races, may appear counterintuitive just one week before polls close in the midterm elections when so many other races are tighter.
Yet Biden allies say it exemplifies the president's efforts to go where he can be helpful - Florida Democrats are hoping Biden can help boost base turnout - but also to drive a message that vulnerable Democrats can amplify nationwide.
Biden has avoided appearing with some of the Democrats' most embattled candidates, including Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, but his aides insist he can be helpful from afar by talking about GOP policies they believe voters find objectionable. Biden is set to campaign in New Mexico on Thursday, California on Friday and Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Biden has seized on Florida Sen. Rick Scott's February proposal to sunset all federal legislation after five years, which the president says would require Congress to reauthorize Medicare and Social Security, as emblematic of what he's termed the "ultra-MAGA" agenda Democrats are running against.
Besides Scott's plan, the White House said Biden would emphasize other GOP proposals that affect older Americans, including raising the retirement age and repealing Medicare's ability to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers and the $2,000-a-year cap on out-of-pocket drug costs included in Democrats' August health care and climate law.
On the Republican side, former President Donald Trump will hold a rally in support of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on Sunday.
It will be held at the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition. Gov. Ron DeSantis has not been officially invited to the event even though he is running for reelection. Once allies, the relationship between Trump and DeSantis has grown distant ahead of a possible presidential showdown in 2024.
