JOE BIDEN COURTS LATINO VOTERS AT VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

Candidate says he’s the better choice at S.d.-based event

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden argued Saturday at a San Diego-based Latino conference that he was the better option for Latinos in the November election and that the current administration had let them down.

Biden, the former vice president, argued President Donald Trump had failed Latinos in terms of his COVID-19 response and his handling of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico at the L’attitude conference.

The annual event began in 2018 and is typically held in San Diego, but went virtual this year because of the pandemic.

Biden has been on a mission to court Latino voters for several weeks and said at the conference his campaign would be donating “significant resources” to the effort.

“We cannot do well in America if the Latino community does not do well,” he said. “Holding them back is totally counterproductive. We’re working as hard as we can for this vote. I’m determined to work as hard as I can.”

L’attitude, a four-day conference, says its mission is to showcase contributions of Latinos in business, media, politics, science and technology.

Biden’s talk lasted about 20 minutes and was streamed on L’attitude’s website, as well as broadcast on MSNBC.

The event was a pre-recorded interview with moderator Stephanie Ruhle, a senior business reporter at MSNBC. It was not announced from where Biden was broadcasting.

Organizers declined to address whether Trump was invited to the conference.

“L’attitude is a nonpartisan event and extended invitations to leaders from both parties,” spokeswoman Paola Santiago told the Union-tribune.

Not all of Biden’s interview was about Latino issues, taking several opportunities to offer a strong rebuke of the president.

Biden called Trump “more (Fidel) Castro than (Winston) Churchill” and compared him to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels for repeating lies with the intention of them becoming accepted truth.

The Twitter account for Trump’s campaign criticized Biden’s speech primarily for briefly confusing the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program for the Main Street Lending Program.

Biden addressed other hot-button issues when asked by Ruhle.

He said he believed Trump would step down from the presidency if he lost, despite rhetoric that sounds like he won’t; he would establish a national commission on policing and racism if elected; and that he was feeling confident going into his first debate Tuesday with the president.

California has the nation’s largest Latino population and saw 35.9 percent of eligible Latino voters cast a ballot in 2018, up from 17.3 percent in 2014, according to the California Civic Engagement Project.

A recent report from the Public Policy Institute of California, covering surveys from September 2019 to July 2020, said 58 percent of California Latino voters are Democrats; 20 percent are independent; 16 percent are Republican and 5 percent are other.

The institute said San Diego and Orange counties combined accounted for 14 percent of Latino voters in the state.