Pence and Biden focus on police, economy in Pa. events – WHYY

He also pushed for strong crackdowns on drug-related crimes repudiating a growing coalition of progressive prosecutors like Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, who are pushing for decarceration and decriminalization for nonviolent offenses.

Pences remarks were in the same vein. He promised the crowd that the Trump administration would never defund police not now, not ever.

We live in a time when the radical left is presenting the American people with one false choice after another, Pence said. Like lately weve been hearing people say weve got to choose between funding our police and funding our communities.

Philadelphia and many other cities have, indeed, been negotiating rerouting funding for police to other community programs that are also intended to reduce crimes though support for those changes have come in large part from mainstream politicians.

Phillys recent budget, for instance, restored some proposed cuts to arts and affordable housing while axing a proposed boost to police funding.

City resident Jackie Kradzinski, who watched Pences speech with her family, said in her mind, Trump is the only candidate for a police-supporting voter.

This government supports our police, said Kradzinski, whose son and daughter both work in law enforcement in Philadelphia. Thats what we need. We need that backing for our cops.

As the vice president spoke, a crowd of FOP supporters outside the lodge grew unruly as a small group of Black Lives Matter protesters approached them. The crowd included groups of bikers and men representing the group the Proud Boys, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a hate group and FBI documents labeled as extremist (though FBI officials later walked that back). They were heard hurling insults at protesters by a WHYY photographer on the scene.

Meanwhile, up near Scranton, Biden was keeping his focus firmly on the economy. At his Dunmore stop, the former vice president took a tour of McGregor Industries, a specialty metal fabricator headquartered there.

In a speech afterward, he rolled out a $700 billion plan aimed at forcing more companies to stop outsourcing manufacturing jobs to other countries.

The proposal includes putting $400 billion into American concrete, steel and cement, and another $300 billion into the development of new technology, like electric cars and 5G internet.

Biden said he also wants to shift Trumps trade deals and stem dependence on China for goods.

[Trump] promised to bring back jobs, but manufacturing was in a recession even before COVID-19. He promised to buy American, but then he let federal contractors double the rate of offshoring jobs in his first eighteen months, Biden said. Im going to change that. Were going to double to tax on foreign profits so we dont encourage people to leave and build abroad.

The spate of action on both sides of the aisle in Pennsylvania comes as Bidens campaign tries to capitalize on Trumps dipping poll numbers.

Biden leads Trump by 6.5 points in an average of recent polls of Pennsylvania voters. Its a strong position for the former vice president, according to Chris Borick, a pollster at Muhlenberg College.

The Democratic and Republican campaigns are competing for similar ground. Pence met with business leaders and Philadelphias police union, and Biden targeted some of the working-class voters Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016.

Borick said all of this is calculated to shift the razor-thin margins by which Pennsylvania swung Republican in 2016. For instance, he said, the Trump campaigns decision to send Pence to Chester County which is trending left and to overwhelmingly blue Philadelphia speaks to a desire to chip away at the edges of the Democratic bloc.

If you can get even a sliver of votes from a place like Philadelphia in a way greater than you did in 2016, its valuable, he added. All votes count the same.

Based on its recent messaging, the Trump campaign has identified two policy areas as winning issues among blue-leaning voters: economics and law and order. And Borick said thats why Biden has to take on the president on those same exact issues.

I think when you look at the presidents standing, economic issues, despite the downturn, remain one of the more positive sides, so that could be a potential weakness for Vice President Biden, Borick said. Speaking on economic issues in key areas of a swing state makes sense.

He added that on at least one issue, Trump seems to be going firmly against the preferences of most Americans: coronavirus safety.

Even though Republicans and Democrats have starkly different views on mask-wearing, he said, polling shows that public opinion tends to align more with Bidens public health-informed approach.

Those partisan differences were clear at Pences FOP rally. Of the roughly 100 people who filled the small, enclosed auditorium at FOP headquarters, only a handful wore masks.

It was enough to draw the attention of Mayor Jim Kenney, who said the Trump campaigns predilection for indoor events during a pandemic doesnt make any sense to anyone though he noted, the FOP lodge is private property.

The entire state of Pennsylvania is still under a mask-wearing order from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, and Philadelphia never reopened fully as case numbers rose again after a period of decline. City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley recently said that since Philadelphia is averaging more than 100 new cases per day, he considers it to be in the throes of a second COVID-19 wave.

A spokesperson for Pence said officially, the vice president has encouraged all Americans to follow state and local guidance. His office said he wore a mask when he wasnt speaking.

That guidance wasnt enforced or posted anywhere at the event.