PHILADELPHIA _ Joe Biden plans to directly challenge President Donald Trump as a destructive, divisive force, and to offer himself as an antidote in his speech scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia.
"If the American people want a president to add to our division, to lead with a clenched fist, closed hand and a hard heart, to demonize the opponents and spew hatred _ they don't need me. They already have a president who does just that," Biden plans to say, according to excerpts released by his campaign Saturday morning. "I am running to offer our country _ Democrats, Republicans and independents _ a different path."
Biden is scheduled to speak at a 1 p.m. rally at Eakins Oval, capping a three-week opening campaign swing that has seen him expand his lead over the rest of the crowded Democratic field. While many of his rivals have spent months introducing themselves or laying out policy prescriptions, the former vice president, already nearly universally known, has worked to establish himself as the Democrat with the stature to counter Trump, whom he has painted as an existential threat to the country's character.
"Some say Democrats don't want to hear about unity. That they are angry _ and the angrier you are the better," Biden plans to say Saturday. "Well, I don't believe it. I believe Democrats want to unify this nation."
Biden has called this election a fight "for the soul" of the country.
Pennsylvania's Republican chairman, Val DiGiorgio, said that as Biden campaigns, voters, especially those in the Keystone State, will see that the former vice president offers no "meaningful success and no real vision for the future."
"We are happy to have the debate over whether or not Americans want a return to the failed Obama-Biden years or feel that they are better off due to the economic achievements seen under President Donald Trump's leadership," DiGiorgio said in a statement.
Biden's event Saturday, coming the same week he announced that he will base his campaign in Philadelphia's Center City neighborhood, bookends a campaign launch that held its first major public event in Pittsburgh (after a high-dollar fundraiser in Philadelphia).
Biden also plans to highlight Philadelphia's place in American history as he lays out an appeal to women and people of color.
"This was the birthplace of our democracy," he plans to say, citing the Declaration of Independence's promise of equality. "America didn't live up to that promise for most of its people, for people of color, for women. But we are born of the idea that every single person in this country _ no matter where you start in life _ there's nothing that's beyond your capacity if you work hard enough for it."
Biden leads the Democratic field in national polls and had a substantial lead in a Pennsylvania survey released this week.
His Democratic rivals and the Trump campaign have begun to question many aspects of his long record, however, and plan to test his staying power over the coming months.
Trump has his own rally planned Monday near Williamsport.
Both parties see Pennsylvania as vital to deciding the outcome of the 2020 election. The Scranton-born Biden has made his Keystone State ties one of his major selling points as he argues that he is best-positioned to win back working-class white voters and Rust Belt swing states.
Trump and his campaign plan to point to robust economic figures to make the case that he has delivered on his promises, though Biden and fellow Democrats argue that the gains have aided the wealthy, not everyday workers.
