Former Vice President Joe Biden proclaimed himself the “most progressive” of all the Democrats vying for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination.
Biden, who remains the favorite among Democratic voters to square-off against President Donald Trump and is widely expected to enter the presidential race, almost made those intentions public on Saturday in a speech to the Delaware Democratic Party, The Hill reports.
U.S. former Vice President Joe Biden wipes away tears as he delivers remarks about his family at the First State Democratic Dinner in Dover, Delaware, U.S. March 16, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
“I’m told I get criticized by the ‘New Left,'” Biden told the audience. “I have the most progressive record of anybody running for the … anybody who would run.” (RELATED: Joe Biden Tells Europe That America Is ‘An Embarrassment’)
Biden was arguing that he has been fighting for liberal values long before the advent of socialist and Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders entered Democratic Party politics and prior to the arrival of Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (RELATED: Biden To Headline LGBTQ Event)
The audience signaled approval for Biden almost declaring his intention to run as they rose to their feet and applauded, according to The Hill.
Biden quickly transitioned to attacks on Trump, whom he said was inspiring dictators around the world.
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the El Paso County Coliseum on Feb. 11, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. U.S. President Donald Trump continues his campaign for a wall to be built along the border as the Democrats in Congress are asking for other border security measures. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“The world’s worst dictators are using [the president’s] own words to justify their own abuses of power,” he claimed, after pleading that “we have to bring this country back together again.”
Although Biden is emphasizing his liberal credentials these days, the former senator from Delaware was often a conservative Democrat who was less than progressive on racial issues, once calling segregation “black pride.”