Biden: Americans should have 'option' to buy into public Medicare plan

(Image credit: Screenshot/Kyle Griffin)

Former Vice President Joe Biden is officially in the game.

Biden, who announced his presidential candidacy with a video last Thursday, delivered his first campaign stump speech on Monday in Pittsburgh. During the speech, Biden breezed through a variety of topics, jumping from point to point, most of which elicited enthusiastic responses from the relatively small, but fiery crowd.

He focused heavily on the idea of rebuilding the middle class, expressing his support for unions and his mission to restore the "dignity of work." While he was short on specific policies, he railed against capital gains loopholes, the fact that fast food industry workers are sometimes required to sign non-compete clauses, and added that it's "well past time" the federal minimum wage was raised to $15 per hour.

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Biden also clarified his health care stance — he supports a public option, but apparently not Medicare-for-all.

Of course, Biden had some fighting words for President Trump, who might have even been watching — Fox News, the president's favorite channel, carried the rally live. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.