Joe Biden Slams Donald Trump's Comment That Housing Crisis Was 'Good Business'
The VP was campaigning for Clinton at Drexel University.
— -- During a campaign stop in Philadelphia, Vice President Joe Biden slammed Donald Trump’s debate performance Monday night –- specifically taking umbrage with the GOP nominee's comments on the housing crisis.
"This is a guy who said -- and wants to be president -- that it was good business for him to see the housing market fail. What in the hell is he talking about?" Biden said during a rally at Drexel University. "Every president I have served with, including Republicans, has had a moral center about what it was to be an American, about what we’re supposed to do, about what basic fundamental rights are."
Biden asked the crowd if they could imagine Ronald Reagan, "saying it's good business to take advantage of people’s misery, rooting for that misery?"
"He does not have the basic fundamental sensibilities and values that almost every American politician left, right and center I know have," Biden said. "They disagree on how to make things better for you, but they don’t take pleasure from 'You’re fired.' They don’t take pleasure knowing that they will benefit."
During the first presidential debate, Hillary Clinton said Trump was rooting for a collapse in the housing market, to which the real-estate mogul responded, "That's called business, by the way."
"When you’re sitting atop Trump Tower, in a semi-golden palace, not a joke, what do you care about the people that I grew up with?" Biden said of Trump.
The vice president also criticized Trump's suggestion that not paying taxes "makes me smart."
"He acknowledged that he didn’t pay taxes because, he said, he’s smart. Makes him smart," Biden said. "Tell that to the janitor in here who’s paying taxes. Tell that to your mothers and fathers who are breaking their neck to send you here who are paying their taxes. No I really mean it. It angers me.”
He added that the views Trump expressed in the debate demonstrate his outlook on the country.
"If this choice isn’t clear, I don’t know –- my lord," Biden said about the debate. "What bothers me about this race is how palpable his cynicism is about the American people."