Bankers and financiers are regular political punching bags for many 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Not so much former Vice President Joe Biden.
At a Monday evening fundraiser at the Washington, D.C. home of Democratic donor, Elizabeth Bagley, Biden assured a group of donors and lobbyists that financiers can be a force of good for the country.
“Wall Street and significant bankers and people, they’re all positive, they can be positive influences in the country,” Biden said. “But they didn’t build the country. The middle class built the country.”
Also in attendance were former Democratic Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, who works for a lobbying firm, and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a former chairman of the Motion Pictures Association of America.
Since his presidential announcement in April, Biden has remained partial to closed, intimate gatherings with donors rather than public campaign events.
During a fundraiser in Los Angeles last month, the former vice president joked about how he hailed from “the corporate state of Delaware” at the home of a healthcare executive. Outside the event, protesters demonstrated against the event chanting “Kaiser, Kaiser, you can’t hide; We can see your greedy side … Kaiser, Kaiser, you’re no good; Treat your patients like you should.”
