Some Vegas Dems bet against odds and still back Biden: ‘Willing to take a chance’
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Retired couple Reed and America Bible are keeping the faith — in President Biden, that is.
Despite Biden’s trainwreck June 27 debate, an unsteady July 5 ABC interview and ongoing campaign appearance flubs, Mr. and Mrs. Bible — a former supervisory immigration officer and ex-real-estate agent, respectively — remain steadfast in their support for the 81-year-old presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the key battleground state.
“I am looking at the past performance of Joe Biden,” said Reed 70, at a local Biden campaign-sponsored watch party for the Colombia-Panama Copa América match Saturday — where a campaign press aide sat in on and recorded all interviews.
“I recognize that people are questioning his mental acumen,” Reed said at the event, which was held in a Los Cucos Mexican chain restaurant and included about three dozen supporters. “I am very willing to take a chance on his ability to continue the job he’s doing.”
The retiree — in a state that last voted for a Republican president 20 years ago but is considered up for grabs in November — shrugged off concerns that Biden’s mental faculties could decline further if he wins and remains in office through age 85.
“That’s what we’ve got a vice president for,” Reed said. “So I’m not worried; we’ve got back-up.”
Reed’s wife — who was with her husband and said her age is “70 plus” — added, “I like Joe Biden — I know what he has done.
“In my opinion, age is wisdom,” she said. “I have known people in their hundreds that have lived a lifetime of history, and they’re sharp tools, the sharpest tools in the shed.”
Asked if she believed Biden was “one of those sharpest tools” during the debate debacle, America Reed acknowledged, “No, he wasn’t.
“But he’s human; I think people forget that. I think he just made it to the debate. He has been flying all over the world.”
The president had returned from an overseas trip 11 days before the debate and spent the six days leading up to it sequestered with handlers at Camp David preparing for it.
America said it is difficult to accept the idea of anyone supporting Donald Trump, even with Biden’s difficulties.
“What I find annoying or kind of upsetting is, I know people who are intelligent, educated, yet they support [Trump],” she said. They support a liar.”
Leticia Ochoa, 52, the owner of a housekeeping business, said she voted for Biden in 2020, her first time casting a US presidential ballot, and plans to vote for him this time around.
“I like him,” she said. “I like how [Democrats] treat our people, our Latin people, our community. I love how they treat us. I’m totally for them.”
Ochoa said she was “not at all concerned” about Biden after the debate.
“I think the team [is] gonna watch his back … the Congress and the Democrats,” she said.
But Ochoa admitted that “some” of her friends and colleagues plan to switch their votes to Trump.
Nicole Hines, a 67-year-old realtor in Las Vegas who is also vice president of the North Las Vegas Democratic Club, said Biden’s debate performance “doesn’t matter” to her, because “Kamala is there to take over if something happens to him.
“I’m perfectly comfortable with Kamala. I believe in the administration,” Hines said.
