HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Former Vice President Joe Biden voiced concern Friday about the sense of hate and terror he sees gripping the country, urging the Democratic party faithful in Connecticut to elect leaders who will help “reset the moral compass of this nation.”
Biden was the main attraction at a rally Friday in Hartford. Earlier in the day, authorities arrested a Florida man in a nationwide mail-bomb scare targeting prominent Democrats, including Biden. Two packages were addressed to the Democrat, who has been critical of Republican President Donald Trump.
“You know, this country has to come together. This division that exists, this hatred, this ugliness, it really has to come to an end,” Biden told the crowd of roughly 1,300, adding how the incident shows that “words matter.”
Biden then quoted a passage from the W.B. Yeats poem “The Second Coming” that included the lines: “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere. The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
“I hope and I pray that our leaders are prepared to lower the temperature of our public dialogue,” he added.
Biden urged the packed magnet school gymnasium to support the full Democratic slate of candidates in Connecticut, especially gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont, who the polls show is in a close race with Republican businessman Bob Stefanowski. Petitioning independent candidate Oz Griebel is also on the November ballot. A recent Quinnipiac University Poll gave Lamont a 9 percentage point advantage over Stefanowski, a political newcomer who has run a campaign focused on the need to cut taxes in order to jumpstart Connecticut’s economy.
Biden likened Lamont to a line of federal politicians from Connecticut who he described as real, authentic and don’t belittle others, something he said voters want. He said this election is “about a lot more than politics” and it’s up to the Democrats to “reset the moral compass of this nation.”
“If there’s anything I’ve seen, it’s that there is an overwhelming yearning on the part of the American people to have women and men of character,” Biden said.
Besides Lamont, Friday’s rally was an opportunity for Democrats to build support for U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and 5th Congressional District candidate Jahana Hayes, an educator and political newcomer who drew huge cheers from the crowd.
Hayes described the election as a choice about what kind of state and nation people want to live in.
“I never imagined myself standing here as a Democratic nominee for anything,” she said. “But what I know for sure is that our values are being tested, our morals are being compromised, our credibility on the global stage is being redefined. What I know for sure is that it is not who we are.”
Hayes is running against former one-term Meriden Mayor Manny Santos, a Republican.
Speakers touched on the laundry list of issues they hope will spark Democratic turnout on Election Day, including Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the claims of sexual assault made against him, as well as gun control, women’s rights, LGBT rights, climate change and immigration policy.
“We have to stay angry,” advised U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who is not up for re-election this year but said it felt like he was. “The future of America is at stake.”
Republicans, including Stefanowski, have accused Democrats of trying to make the election more about Trump and national issues because they don’t want to talk about the state’s fiscal challenges.
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