Polisena, overlooking Democratic field, sees Biden as only potential threat to Trump

Posted

Mayor Joseph Polisena had a succinct answer when asked which of the current Democratic presidential candidates he would support at the polls: None of the above.

Polisena said he believes only former Vice President Joe Biden could defeat incumbent President Donald Trump in a race for the Oval Office. He went as far as to label Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as “socialists” and suggest that Sen. Kamala Harris has “no experience.”

“I don’t think I’d vote for any of them. I think they’re awful. I really do,” Polisena said during an interview in his office last Thursday. “What I’d like to see passed, to be honest with you, and you’d see a lot less people, is that if you're in Congress – if you’re a senator or representative – you should step down, or else you can’t run for president. Because all they’re doing is raising money and they’re flying back and forth and they're throwing bombs. None of them have any solutions.”

Polisena said Biden – the only he would consider supporting –has the “temperament” and experience with international relations that would make him a palatable candidate. He said countries like Russia or China “could walk all over us” should Sanders and Warren win the presidency.

Polisena also “really took offense” to criticisms of Biden from the rest of the field, echoing a refrain from the day before. He attended an event at the Johnston Senior Center with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on Wednesday and went after Democratic candidates for “attacking” Biden.

Harris and Biden went back and forth on the latter’s record on federally mandated busing during his time as a senator in 1970s at the first primary debate in June. Biden has also come under fire recently, after the Sun Rise interview with Polisena, for what Vice News called “a trail of gaffes” while campaigning in Iowa. Most notably, Biden slipped and said, “Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented as white kids.”

Biden’s viability, according to Polisena, partially stems from what he sees as a country that is largely centrist. He claimed Sanders and Warren sit too far to the left to win over voters on the fence.

“I’ll tell you what, if Bernie Sanders is the nominee or Elizabeth Warren, then my prediction is Donald Trump can go to Disney for the election and come back a winner,” Polisena said. “I’m telling you, they will never get in.”

When asked why experience – one of Polisena’s chief reasons for believing in Biden’s prospects – didn’t help former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in her pursuit of the presidency, Polisena said Clinton “tried to be everything to everybody.”

“People didn’t bite,” Polisena said of Clinton, who came to Johnston in 2016 while on the campaign trail. “I’m going to be honest with you with Hillary Clinton. I psychoanalyze people. The problem with Hillary is she didn’t portray herself the way she portrayed herself when you were meeting with her in person. She was two different [people].”

Polisena blasted the progressive wing of the party, homing in on universal healthcare and comments Warren made in March concerning the elimination of the Electoral College. The mayor said he didn’t believe Warren or Sanders specifically would win Johnston, issuing a reminder that the town went for Trump by a margin of nearly 14 points.

The town voted for President Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012, but did not pick the winner in 2004, siding with former Secretary of State John Kerry. The 2016 election marked the first time Johnston went red since 1972, when the Richard Nixon/Spiro Agnew ticket won the town, according to state Board of Elections reports.

“Unfortunately, the progressive portion of the Democratic Party is really taking the party apart,” Polisena said. “Whether it’s locally in the state, or nationally. Because of the progressive policies that they want to do – free healthcare for everybody, free this, free that. Someone’s got to pay for it. There’s no free ride. So someone’s got to pay for it, and the middle-class, working people have to pay for it.”

Polisena said he hopes that he wouldn’t have to leave the Democratic Party, as the progressive policies he maligns gain popularity. He continued, saying that “if it continues or if we allow, [progressives are] going to be the demise of the Democratic Party in this state.”

The self-described John F. Kennedy-style moderate Democrat said Rhode Island isn’t as blue as New York or California, and that those in the middle have become exasperated.

“There’s certain things you have to do for people, but not give everything away and require no means of responsibility to get the stuff that they’re giving away,” Polisena said. “So would I ever leave the party? I hope not. I hope I wouldn’t have to, but I think there are a lot of Democrats out there that feel the same way I do. They’re more or less middle or centrists, if you will.”

Polisena did admit, though, that he adopts some conservative views, referencing his fervent support of the Second Amendment. He said he worries that “there’s no room at the table for a moderate Democrat” in working with progressives.

“I don’t see myself leaving the party. I would hope I wouldn’t have to,” Polisena said. “I think there are a lot more people that think like me, and I noticed that too when I went to the state Democratic Party and we had our elections, and some of the progressives tried to run against some of the moderate Democrats and quite frankly they got destroyed.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here