LYNN — Vice President Joseph Biden rolled up his sleeves and revved up more than 200 people at the Lynn YMCA Wednesday to pump momentum into the final days of Democrat Seth Moulton’s congressional campaign.
Biden admitted during his speech that “I don’t know anything about Seth’s opponent,” Richard Tisei, but Biden bashed Republicans in Congress for being afraid to speak up against the party’s leadership.
”We don’t need someone who is going to go down to Washington, hide in a corner, and vote ‘no’ and hope they don’t notice him. You need someone who stands up and says, ‘Enough is enough,’” Biden said.
Biden climbed the stairs to a temporary stage in the YMCA’s gymnasium with Moulton at 3:44 p.m. — an hour after most of the crowd streamed into the gym after clearing Secret Service metal-detector screenings.
Moulton, Tisei and Independent Chris Stockwell face off in Tuesday’s final election. Prior to introducing Biden, Moulton said he “can feel momentum out there” as the final days of the campaign tick away. Moulton told the Y audience he will work to bring Blue Line rapid transit to Lynn, reform small-business taxes and end the “national embarrassment” of veterans care in America.
Biden praised Moulton, a Marine who did four tours in Iraq, as one of the “9/11 generation of warriors – the finest in the history of mankind.”
”We sent them to the gates of hell once, twice, three and four times. Seth is the kind of guy you look for to send into public life: He’s excelled at everything he’s done,” Biden said.
He said Moulton can champion job creation, tax reform and senior assistance programs aimed at saving the nation’s middle class. Biden said the reassurances he received from his father, even during difficult economic times during his childhood, are not echoed by American parents today.
”Today, a lot of parents aren’t so sure. The economy, in a broad sense, is back, but for middle-class people, it’s not so hot,” he said.
Biden said Congress should be giving tax breaks to middle-class Americans and said he shares Moulton’s belief that investing federal dollars into major infrastructure projects, including a high-speed rail plan unsuccessfully advocated by Biden, will create good-paying jobs.
”This new Republican party votes against all infrastructure – they’re anti-everything,” Biden said.
Before Biden took the stage, local elected officials, including City Councilor-at-Large and state Rep.-elect Brendan Crighton, Council President Daniel Cahill, state Rep. Robert Fennell and state Sen. Thomas M. McGee, chairman of the Mass. Democratic Party, pushed audience members to get out the vote next Tuesday. Biden said a Moulton win will help “break the back of the tea party” in the Republican party to usher in an era of consensus politics in Washington, D.C.
”The majority of Republicans will vote on rational action. They know better, but they don’t have the courage to stand up. Seth and I know you need consensus to run government,” Biden said.
