At the rally, Biden pledges to unite the country: "We are all in the same boat"

CRÊME PHILADELPHIA – Former Vice President Joe Biden is offered to voters as a well-placed leader to unify a divided country at a rally on Saturday afternoon. The event, the most important of his fledgling campaign, aimed to close the opening phase of his candidacy for the White House.

"We are all in the same boat," Biden told the crowd. "We have to remember that today, I think, more than ever in my career."

He added a note of optimism: "In this great experience of equality, opportunity and decency, we did not live up to it, but we never gave it up."

Biden walked on his stage with his iconic swagger, wearing a pair of aviator sunglasses that he donned, as well as a sports coat, before addressing an audience of about 6,000 people, according to estimates from a security firm recruited by the campaign.

Biden has repeatedly and directly addressed President Trump, comparing his tactics to that used by dictators. At one point, he quoted Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg speech, delivered during the Civil War on a Pennsylvania battlefield, to emphasize the importance of unifying the country.

"Are we the ones who will let the government of, by and for the people perish from the face of the earth?" Asked Biden. "Do we dare to let that happen? Do we dare to let that happen? Absolutely not. We will not go. "

Biden entered the race three weeks ago with a video that highlighted Trump's reaction to the brutal 2017 "United the Right" protest in Charlottesville, where white supremacists marched and battled with demonstrators.

The president said at the time that there were "very good people on both sides" in the conflict, which prompted Biden to draft an opinion piece in the Atlantic entitled "We live a battle for the soul of this country". The president has made restoring the soul of the nation a theme of his campaign.

Biden followed this video at a rally in a union hall in Pittsburgh, where he focused on another theme: rebuilding the middle class. Saturday's event aimed to highlight the third message of his candidacy: Unite the country.

"I know some of the smartest are saying Democrats do not want to hear about unity," Biden said. "They say that Democrats are so angry that the more angry candidate is angry, the more likely he is to win the Democratic nomination."

"That's wrong, Joe!" Shouted a member of the audience.

"I do not think so," continued Biden.

"If the American people want the president to add to our division, head with a closed fist, a closed hand, a hard heart, to demonize your opponent, to spread hatred, they do not need me," did he declare. "They have President Donald Trump."

This is an idea that other candidates have also put forward at their introductory meetings.

"We must not allow those who have the power to create weapons against hatred and fanaticism to divide us," said Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) at its launch.

"We will bring our people together," said Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt).

"We must recognize that we are already on a common ground," said Senator Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.).

Mr. Biden also used the 30-minute speech to respond to critics regarding his campaign message, particularly to those who think it's naive for him to suggest that he will work with Republicans. he is elected.

"I'm going to say something offensive: I know how to make the government work. Not because I talked about it or tweeted it. But because I did it. I worked on the other side to reach a consensus, "he said.

He also presented an overview of the climate change policy announced by his campaign in the coming weeks: "We need a revolution of clean energy" and expressed the wish to "define the most aggressive goals possible ".

Biden received strong criticism from the Liberals after a Reuters report, citing a Biden advisor, said the vice president would try to find an "intermediate" solution to the problem .

Since entering the campaign, Biden has visited the first four candidate states. During these visits, he received relatively few questions from voters and the media. On Saturday, he took no questions to the public hall.

It did not hurt him in the first polls and it's a factor that caught Trump's attention.

The president has sought to define Biden using the nickname "Sleepy Joe", tweeting the nickname about half a dozen times since Biden entered the race.

The president also referred to Biden on social networks as "SleepyCreepy Joe", a reference to a recent focus on Biden's loving manner, which some women say makes them uncomfortable. Biden has promised to be more attentive to the future and attributes the interactions to his personal style.

Recalling how problematic the problem was, one of these women made the news on Saturday, shortly before Biden came on stage.

Lucy Flores, the former Nevada woman who had written an essay earlier this year, accusing Biden of having touched her without her consent, broke down in tears during a public event hundreds of miles from Richmond.

Flores was the keynote speaker at an organization event sponsored by She the People, a group aimed at increasing voter turnout for women of color. While she was listening to the introduction, which was referring to her decision to make public her uncomfortable physical encounter with Biden, she began to cry.

The tears continued as Flores climbed onto the stage, where she spent a few seconds trying to regain her composure, sniffing and wiping her eyes.

She only made passing remarks about Biden. "I did not know that so many battles that I had with the Republican party, I would have as much if not more with my own party," she said.

Flores received a standing ovation from the crowd of about 250 predominantly black and Hispanic women.

Holly Bailey in Richmond contributed to this report.