Joe Biden Aims to Erode Trump's Florida Support Among Older Voters

Visiting the Democratic stronghold of Broward County, Joe Biden argued that the president viewed older Americans who are at higher risk of the coronavirus as “expendable.”.

turned his attention on Tuesday to older Americans, making a case in South Florida that President Trump viewed seniors as “expendable” and that they were paying the price for the president’s poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden said in a speech at a community center in Pembroke Pines, a city in the vote-rich Democratic stronghold of Broward County.

Biden’s pitch to them on Tuesday was his latest attempt to maximize his standing with those voters.

Biden, 77, who wore a mask during his speech, offered an unsparing critique of Mr?

Biden said.

“The longer Donald Trump is president, the more reckless he seems to get,” Mr.

Biden said.

He said in his speech that two of his grandchildren lived near his Delaware home, adding that he bribed them during socially-distanced visits with Häagen-Dazs bars.

Trump also invoked older Americans on Tuesday, declaring at an evening rally near Johnstown, Pa., that “Biden’s agenda would be a catastrophe for seniors” and asserting that Mr.

Trump won voters age 65 and older by seven percentage points in 2016, according to exit polls, and no Democratic presidential nominee has won among those voters since Al Gore in 2000.

Biden appears to be in a considerably stronger position with seniors than Hillary Clinton was with older Americans in 2016, both nationally and in Florida, where a victory is critical to Mr.

Trump won by 17 points among voters 65 and older in the 2016 election, exit polls found.

But a recent New York Times/Siena College poll of likely voters in Florida showed a tight contest this time around within that age group, with 47 percent supporting Mr.

They held Biden-Harris signs and wore campaign T-shirts, but most said that they had never before stood under the blazing South Florida afternoon sun to stump for a politician.

Hensley is a Democrat, but she said her husband was a lifelong Republican, “and he backs Biden 100 percent.” The couple used to see their grandchildren, ages 12 and 10, every day

Butaric, 65, said he had previously not followed politics but thought he could no longer afford to be “politically naïve.” His mother is in her late 80s and his in-laws are in their 90s and late 80s, and he is worried about the coronavirus

Butaric said of Mr