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In this screengrab from a new television ad from Action for a Progressive Future, a young man winces as he hears a clip of a 2018 interview in which Joe Biden says he has "no empathy" for younger people.
"It's garbage."
That's one young voter's assessment of Joe Biden's comment last year that he has "no empathy" for young people. The comment is the focus of a new television ad targeting the former vice president and Democratic presidential hopeful. It's set to begin airing Monday evening on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."
"We launched this ad to convey a simple message," said Action for a Progressive Future co-founder Jeff Cohen in a statement, "that Democrats would have a hard time defeating Trump with a candidate who belittles young voters and their very real struggles."
Watch the ad, which features younger voters in Durham, New Hampshire, below:
In a 2018 interview with The Los Angeles Times Biden said, "The younger generation now tells me how tough things are. Give me a break. No, no, I have no empathy for it. Give me a break. Because here's the deal guys, we decided we were gonna change the world. And we did."
The comment does not sit well with the young voters featured in the new video.
"Does he know what it's like to carry $40,000 in college debt and have a minimum wage job?" asks one woman.
"If we want to beat Trump in 2020," adds another woman, "we need a candidate who actually speaks to young people instead of insulting them."
The new ad also directs viewers to BidenFactSquad.org, a page that catalogs a number of comments from Biden as well excerpts of reporting on him--all of which would likely elicit progressive criticism. The questionable comments include Biden saying in 2015, "I really like Dick Cheney for real. I get on with him, I think he's a decent man."
The page also includes a damning snippet from New York magazine's Eric Levitz, who wrote earlier this year, "It is hard to name an infamously unjust feature of America's criminal-justice system that Joe Biden didn't help to bring about."
Cohen suggests Biden getting the Democratic Party ticket would likely amount to a second Trump administration.
"Poll after poll shows that people under 35 are more progressive and more anti-Trump than older voters," he said. "Biden's dismissive attitude raises the specter of a re-run of the 2016 Democratic defeat, when too many young people did not vote or voted third-party."
Action for a Progressive Future, which runs the progressive advocacy group RootsAction, says the ad will run for at least one week throughout the state of New Hampshire, which makes it likely that viewers in and around the cities of Boston, Burlington, Vermont, and Portland, Maine will also see the ad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
"It's garbage."
That's one young voter's assessment of Joe Biden's comment last year that he has "no empathy" for young people. The comment is the focus of a new television ad targeting the former vice president and Democratic presidential hopeful. It's set to begin airing Monday evening on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."
"We launched this ad to convey a simple message," said Action for a Progressive Future co-founder Jeff Cohen in a statement, "that Democrats would have a hard time defeating Trump with a candidate who belittles young voters and their very real struggles."
Watch the ad, which features younger voters in Durham, New Hampshire, below:
In a 2018 interview with The Los Angeles Times Biden said, "The younger generation now tells me how tough things are. Give me a break. No, no, I have no empathy for it. Give me a break. Because here's the deal guys, we decided we were gonna change the world. And we did."
The comment does not sit well with the young voters featured in the new video.
"Does he know what it's like to carry $40,000 in college debt and have a minimum wage job?" asks one woman.
"If we want to beat Trump in 2020," adds another woman, "we need a candidate who actually speaks to young people instead of insulting them."
The new ad also directs viewers to BidenFactSquad.org, a page that catalogs a number of comments from Biden as well excerpts of reporting on him--all of which would likely elicit progressive criticism. The questionable comments include Biden saying in 2015, "I really like Dick Cheney for real. I get on with him, I think he's a decent man."
The page also includes a damning snippet from New York magazine's Eric Levitz, who wrote earlier this year, "It is hard to name an infamously unjust feature of America's criminal-justice system that Joe Biden didn't help to bring about."
Cohen suggests Biden getting the Democratic Party ticket would likely amount to a second Trump administration.
"Poll after poll shows that people under 35 are more progressive and more anti-Trump than older voters," he said. "Biden's dismissive attitude raises the specter of a re-run of the 2016 Democratic defeat, when too many young people did not vote or voted third-party."
Action for a Progressive Future, which runs the progressive advocacy group RootsAction, says the ad will run for at least one week throughout the state of New Hampshire, which makes it likely that viewers in and around the cities of Boston, Burlington, Vermont, and Portland, Maine will also see the ad.
"It's garbage."
That's one young voter's assessment of Joe Biden's comment last year that he has "no empathy" for young people. The comment is the focus of a new television ad targeting the former vice president and Democratic presidential hopeful. It's set to begin airing Monday evening on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."
"We launched this ad to convey a simple message," said Action for a Progressive Future co-founder Jeff Cohen in a statement, "that Democrats would have a hard time defeating Trump with a candidate who belittles young voters and their very real struggles."
Watch the ad, which features younger voters in Durham, New Hampshire, below:
In a 2018 interview with The Los Angeles Times Biden said, "The younger generation now tells me how tough things are. Give me a break. No, no, I have no empathy for it. Give me a break. Because here's the deal guys, we decided we were gonna change the world. And we did."
The comment does not sit well with the young voters featured in the new video.
"Does he know what it's like to carry $40,000 in college debt and have a minimum wage job?" asks one woman.
"If we want to beat Trump in 2020," adds another woman, "we need a candidate who actually speaks to young people instead of insulting them."
The new ad also directs viewers to BidenFactSquad.org, a page that catalogs a number of comments from Biden as well excerpts of reporting on him--all of which would likely elicit progressive criticism. The questionable comments include Biden saying in 2015, "I really like Dick Cheney for real. I get on with him, I think he's a decent man."
The page also includes a damning snippet from New York magazine's Eric Levitz, who wrote earlier this year, "It is hard to name an infamously unjust feature of America's criminal-justice system that Joe Biden didn't help to bring about."
Cohen suggests Biden getting the Democratic Party ticket would likely amount to a second Trump administration.
"Poll after poll shows that people under 35 are more progressive and more anti-Trump than older voters," he said. "Biden's dismissive attitude raises the specter of a re-run of the 2016 Democratic defeat, when too many young people did not vote or voted third-party."
Action for a Progressive Future, which runs the progressive advocacy group RootsAction, says the ad will run for at least one week throughout the state of New Hampshire, which makes it likely that viewers in and around the cities of Boston, Burlington, Vermont, and Portland, Maine will also see the ad.