Biden pitches his policies, blasts Trump in Nevada campaign stop

President Joe Biden met with campaign supporters in Reno, Nevada, on Tuesday to promote his affordable housing proposals and pitch his case for reelection, while blasting former President Donald Trump for threatening to "undo everything we've done." Biden - who will continue on to Arizona, another political swing state that could prove critical to his bid to stay in the White House - said he was confident he would beat his Republican rival in November's presidential election rematch.

"Support around the country is real," Biden said in a stop at a campaign headquarters in Reno, noting that over 1.3 million people had contributed to his campaign, and four recent opinion polls showed him leading Trump. "We're going to beat him again," said the president, a Democrat.

Biden has been making stops in a host of battleground states since sharply criticizing Trump in his State of the Union address this month, while laying out ideas he hopes to implement if given a second four-year term. With worries about high rents and mortgage interest rates contributing to voters' sour views about the economy, Biden said his administration was expanding clean energy jobs, lowering healthcare costs and growing the economy, while Trump was threatening to cut Medicare and lower taxes for the rich.

"We're going to make sure we're dealing with all those things that affect people's daily lives," Biden said, singling out a proposal to restore an expanded child tax credit that he said had cut child poverty in half early in his term. White House economic adviser Lael Brainard told reporters on Monday that Biden would use a separate speech in Las Vegas to call on Congress to support investments to lower housing costs.

"The housing affordability crunch for renters and would-be homeowners has been years in the making, and the previous administration did not take action to address it," she said before the trip, placing blame on Trump for housing costs. Trump has lambasted Biden for his economic policies and for presiding over inflation in multiple sectors of the economy that has stung voters nationwide.

Biden's plan, which would require congressional passage, includes a $10,000 mortgage relief tax credit for first-time homebuyers and a $10,000 tax credit for people selling "starter" homes in an effort to free up housing inventory at the lower end of the market. His plan also calls for tax credits to build more housing units, efforts to fight "rent gouging by corporate landlords," and an expansion of a low-income housing tax credit program, according to the White House.

Congress is unlikely to pass major legislation in an election year, but the president's discussion of the topic reflects his administration's awareness of the impact it could have on his reelection hopes. After his remarks in Las Vegas, Biden will travel on to Arizona, where he will make remarks at a Mexican restaurant in the Phoenix area and launch a group dedicated to engaging Latino voters, according to his campaign.

Biden campaign officials are working to mobilize minority voters, including Hispanics and Blacks, to help him win in what are expected to be close races in the swing states that will decide who prevails in the November election. The president has faced anger from younger voters and Arab Americans over his support for Israel in its war against Hamas militants in Gaza. That generated significant protest votes of "uncommitted" by Democrats in primary elections in Michigan, Minnesota, Hawaii and North Carolina in the past two months.

Arizona's Abandon Biden campaign is urging voters in the Southwestern state to vote for author Marianne Williamson in the Democratic primary, which was being held on Tuesday, since "uncommitted" is not an option there. Biden won Arizona in 2020 by just 10,457 votes, and studies estimate that Muslims make up about 1% to 1.5% of the state's population of nearly 8 million people.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)