Joe Biden dubs Trump's White House 'bully pulpit', speaks out against anti-LGBTQ law

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says President Donald Trump is setting a poor example for the world on human rights and protecting LGBTQ individuals. 

“This White House is literally a bully pulpit,” Biden told a group of about 700 people Saturday at a fundraising dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization. 

“It’s callously extending its power over the most vulnerable, implementing discriminatory policies like Muslim bans, turning away asylum seekers, putting children in cages,” Biden said. “And the current vice president uses religious freedom as an excuse to license discrimination.”

Biden’s speech at Ohio State University’s Ohio Union was his first visit to the state as a presidential candidate. While there, Biden criticized how Trump’s GOP administration has rolled back policies protecting transgender people.

Biden also recounted the 2012 “Meet the Press” interview when the vice president supported same-sex marriage – when most politicians were advocating for civil unions and President Barack Obama was “evolving” on the topic. 

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“I had told the president that I wasn’t going to push things,” Biden said. “But if asked, I was not going to remain quiet.” 

The next day, Biden said Obama gave him a hug.

“Well, you told me,” Obama said. 

Biden told the crowd that he was inspired to enter the presidential race, in part, because of Trump’s response to attacks at a Charlottesville white supremacist rally and counterprotests. Trump said after the attacks that “you also had some very fine people on both sides.”

“Folks, no sitting president, Republican or Democrat, has ever uttered a phrase like that,” Biden said. 

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one of Ohio’s top Republicans demanded the state’s libraries halt activities tied to LGBTQ Pride Month. “The taxpayers aren’t interested in seeing their hard-earned dollars being used to teach teenage boys how to become drag queens. I expect this to end immediately,” Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder wrote in a letter. 

While Biden visited Columbus, several fellow 2020 candidates addressed the California Democratic Party. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faced chants there calling for the impeachment of Trump. California Sen. Kamala Harris told the crowd: “We need to begin impeachment proceedings and we need a new commander in chief.”

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Biden has been more measured on talk of impeachment. Biden’s campaign said impeachment “may be unavoidable” after special counsel Robert Mueller’s statement Wednesday. Still, the campaign reiterated that Biden agreed with Pelosi’s approach that no one should relish impeachment.

Biden’s visit to Ohio demonstrated that the former vice president would set his own schedule. In early polls of the Democratic field, Biden has a double-digit lead on his next closest competitor, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a field of 23. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan polls around 1 percent.

Follow Jessie Balmert on Twitter: @jbalmert

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