Joe Biden Promises Rich Donors He Won't 'Demonize' The Wealthy If Elected President

Former Vice President Joe Biden told a roomful of well-heeled donors on Tuesday night that he would not demonize the rich if hes elected president in the 2020 election. I need you very badly, he told the group.

Addressing the 100 or so guests at a fundraiser at the swanky Carlyle Hotel in New York City, Biden said hed gotten into hot soup with some of the people on my team, on the Democratic side for his earlier comments about rich people being just as patriotic as poor people.

Thats not a joke, he said. I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who has made money.

Appearing to suggest that his tax plan would not include excessive taxes on the rich, Biden said no ones standard of living change if hes elected.

The truth of the matter is, you all, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done. We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is its all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No ones standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change, he said.

Here's Joe Biden, literally telling the mega-rich that if he's elected, nothing will change. pic.twitter.com/I1CecQBWq9

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Here's Joe Biden, literally telling the mega-rich that if he's elected, nothing will change. pic.twitter.com/I1CecQBWq9
Dante Atkins (@DanteAtkins) June 19, 2019

Biden added that though income inequality is a considerable problem that plagues the United States, the rich are not the enemy thats to blame for the wealth gap. He said:

When we have income inequality as large as we have in the United States today, it brews and ferments political discord and basic revolution. Not a joke. Not a joke ... It allows demagogues to step in and say the reason where we are is because of the other ... Youre not the other. I need you very badly. I hope if I win this nomination, I wont let you down. I promise you. I have a bad reputation, I always say what I mean. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean.

Bloombergs Jennifer Epstein described the scene at the Tuesday fundraiser: Affluent donors, including former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and former Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman, tucked into hors doeuvres like lobster, chicken satay and crudites. The group was well-dressed, Epstein said, most of them in suits.

Though Biden has pushed a generally populist economic agenda focused on decreasing income inequality and promoting workers rights, the former vice president has taken a moderate stance when it comes to taxation. Unlike some of his 2020 Democratic rivals like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Biden has not singled out the mega-rich as tax targets. Hes instead proposed expanding tax credits for the poor and middle class, and making the tax code less friendly to rich investors.

I love Bernie, but Im not Bernie Sanders. I dont think 500 billionaires are the reason why were in trouble, Biden said at an event in March .