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View Winners → Politics Nov 03, 2022
President Joe Biden. | Photo by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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President Joe Biden cited various bills passed during his presidency during an approximately 45-minute speech Thursday evening at MiraCosta College in Oceanside to boost Rep. Mike Levin’s reelection campaign.
Biden lauded the American Rescue Plan, Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included enhancing certain restrictions and penalties on firearms purchases, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and focused on such issues as medical care, climate change and attempts to revitalize American manufacturing.
After speaking directly to a young member of the crowd whose sign he could not read because of the small print, the president started talking about his past stutter.
“Sounds funny, but guess what: It makes you feel like an idiot,” Biden said, later adding, “It cannot define you. It will not define you.”
Biden later connected that line of thought to the need for more “mental assistance” after the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden also discussed the mental health challenges of veterans, telling the crowd of more than 1,000 at the college’s basketball gym his administration is working on that with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Biden arrived at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar at 6:04 p.m. aboard Air Force 1 from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he spoke about student debt relief and participated in a Democratic Party rally. He exited the plane at 6:19 p.m., the first shook hands with Gov. Gavin Newsom, then with the rest of the welcoming delegation which also included San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, Levin and Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego.
Biden arrived at MiraCosta College around 7:10 p.m.
Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, preceded Biden in speaking, drawing his biggest applause for saying people don’t want a second term for former President Donald Trump and that Congress should codify “a woman’s right to choose.”
Levin is facing former San Juan Capistrano Mayor Brian Maryott in Tuesday’s election in a bid for a third term representing the 49th Congressional District which straddles North San Diego and South Orange counties.
Levin defeated Maryott, 53.1%-46.9%, in 2020.
Biden is scheduled to speak late Friday morning at a San Diego technology company that will benefit from passage of the CHIPS and Science Act and more chips being made in America.
Biden is set to leave San Diego early Friday afternoon, bound for Chicago.
