Biden: Trump 'not qualified' to have nuclear codes

SCRANTON - Donald Trump, with intemperate words and ignorant positions, has made the United States less secure, Vice President Biden warned Monday in his first campaign appearance with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump "is not qualified to know the codes," Biden said, referring to the encrypted orders, carried by military aides everywhere the president and vice president go, for launching the country's nuclear weapons.

In a personal note, Biden said that if his son, Beau, who died of brain cancer last year, was still serving in Iraq, he would advise that the danger had jumped "a couple of clicks" because of Trump's remarks, including the assertion that President Obama is the "founder" of the Islamic State terrorist group.

Biden ripped the Republican presidential candidate for saying he would reassess the NATO alliance if elected, and mocked as un-American Trump's apparent fondness for autocrats like Russia's Vladimir Putin.

"He would have loved Stalin," Biden said to laughter and cheers from about 3,000 people at an indoor sports center in this faded mining and industrial center, where he grew up.

Along with the attacks, Biden, who built his political career on an image as a blue-collar champion, appealed on Clinton's behalf to the kind of white working-class voters Trump has helped tear away from the Democratic Party.

"What Hillary is all about is making sure that every one of you can look your child, your grandchild, in the eye and say, 'It's going to be OK,' " Biden said. "Think how many people don't think they can say that anymore."

An NBC-Wall Street Journal-Marist poll released last week found Trump leading by 16 percentage points nationally among white registered voters without college degrees, but he trailed by 21 points among white college graduates and by 93 points among African American voters.

Biden, who considered challenging Clinton for the Democratic nomination but declined, citing his family's grief over Beau's death, was warm in his praise of his onetime political rival.

Scranton, where Biden lived until he was in grade school, is filled with people defined by "grit, courage, and determination to never, ever give up," the vice president said. "They deserve someone who not only understands them, they deserve someone who will be with them."

Clinton is that person, Biden said, portraying her as a caring public servant who "gets it" about the economic changes that have left parts of the country behind. "Everybody knows how smart Hillary is - but I don't think they fully understand how passionate she is," he said.

Trump's relish of the phrase "you're fired," made famous on his reality TV show, betrays a callousness of the soul, Biden said, citing moral lessons he learned around the kitchen table at his grandfather's house in Scranton decades ago.

"He's trying to tell us he cares about the middle class? Give me a break. It's such a bunch of malarkey," Biden said. "He doesn't have a clue."

Audience members called out "Welcome home, Joe!" and "We love you, Joe," during his 34-minute speech.

Clinton also has ties to Scranton - her father grew up here, and her grandfather worked at the Scranton Lace Co. factory for decades. She was baptized at a Methodist church on Court Street, and recalled visiting the city and nearby Lake Winola "every summer of my life."

"The story of the Rodhams and the Bidens isn't unique. What's unique is the country where those stories were written," Clinton said. "No matter what Donald Trump says, America is great, and the American dream is big enough for everyone to share in that promise."

Trump's strategy relies on maximizing his advantage with white working-class voters to offset Clinton's strength with other groups, particularly nonwhite voters. Non-college-educated whites make up a greater share of the electorate than the national average in Pennsylvania, as well as in Ohio and Michigan. But polls show Trump trailing in all three states, with his margins among non-college-educated whites failing to balance out losses in other groups.

In the last few weeks, Clinton has built a lead averaging about nine percentage points in the last five independent polls, according to Real Clear Politics. That is considered a large margin for mid-August.

"It would be a truly historic reversal of fortunes for Trump to carry the state this fall," said Muhlenberg College pollster Christopher Borick. "All of his strength among working-class whites is being wiped away by the crushing deficits he is facing in other demographics."

Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.), who also is from Scranton, said that he was gratified by the polls but worried. "As Democrats, we have always had to prepare for a tight race in our state," he said. "Things look better than usual in suburban Philadelphia right now, but it's still a long campaign."

Later, the vice president and Clinton visited a frame house at 2446 N. Washington Ave. "This is where I grew up," Biden said. "At the top of Fisk Street."

"Did you ever sled down it?" Clinton asked.

"A lot of times," Biden said.

He admitted that he once jumped onto the roof of a trolley car from a tree in a neighbor's yard, an old Scranton tale. "But I did become much more reasonable," he said.

tfitzgerald@phillynews.com

215-854-2718@tomfitzgerald

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