Biden and Sanders sharpen attacks on each other in fight for Democrats’ votes
THE two top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination have sharpened their attacks against each other.
Former US vice president Joe Biden and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders are each looking to convince voters that they are the best choice to take on Donald Trump in November as six more states – Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North
Dakota and Washington – prepare to vote in their primaries tomorrow.
This state of play could endure for months as Mr Biden and Mr Sanders wage a protracted battle for the right to attempt to oust the president from the White House.
“You cannot defeat Trump with the same-old, same-old politics of yesteryear,” Mr Sanders told more than 7,000 supporters at a convention hall in Detroit.
At 78, Mr Sanders is actually a year older than Mr Biden. But the avowed democratic socialist, who has served in US Congress since 1991, argues that he has bucked the establishment of both parties for decades with unpopular stands that now give him the credibility to lead a political revolution “from the bottom up”.
Mr Sanders said it is part of a larger movement that can draw younger voters, minorities and working-class people to the polls even though they tend to vote in lower concentrations than many other Americans.
Strong support among Hispanics lifted Mr Sanders to victories in Nevada and California, but Mr Biden trounced him in South Carolina and throughout much of the Deep South that voted during last week’s Super Tuesday.
Mr Biden proved especially popular among African American voters.
Mr Sanders is looking for a strong finish in Washington, but he cancelled a trip to Mississippi to focus on Michigan, the largest prize on offer tomorrow.
Mr Sanders has used his Michigan stops to hammer Mr Biden’s past support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, arguing that it moved high-paying US jobs to Mexico and China while devastating manufacturing in a state dominated by the car industry.
The Vermont senator said: “How do we differ? What’s our records? Who stood up when the going was tough?”
Mr Sanders is focused on Mr Biden’s years in the US senate, when the former vice president backed not only trade agreements and the Us-led war in Iraq, but also a ban on using federal funds to pay for abortions.