Vice President Biden campaigned with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) on Friday, telling reporters she has been a “vital partner” to him and President Obama.
{mosads}”She’s my favorite person,” he said, according to pool reports.
“There’s a lot of really important things that the Congress has not acted on that we think are essential. And our go-to person in the Congress — there are four people — and Debbie’s one of them. So it’s really important that we take nothing for granted this year,” he added.
Wasserman Schultz faces a primary against Tim Canova, a law professor backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
She angered Sanders supporters in her role as Democratic National Committee chairwoman, after hacked emails were released that showed top DNC officials working against the Sanders campaign. The fallout forced her to resign as DNC chairwoman and she barely participated in the convention she had helped plan.
But she’s been endorsed by the president and vice president, who emphasized Friday their close relationship.
“I don’t know how many times I asked her down to the White House, and the president has, to deal with everything from how we’re going to work on foreign policy in the Middle East to making sure that we’re in a position here were going to protect Social Security,” Biden said.
He also defended sending a video message to Wasserman Schultz for her daughter’s bat mitzvah. When Wikileaks released the stolen emails last month, it was revealed that Biden’s staff had turned down Wasserman Schultz’s request to have the vice president speak at her daughter’s bat mitzvah.
“Now, admittedly, I’m in love with her daughter,” Biden said Friday, unprompted. “I wanted to go to her bat mitzvah. Couldn’t go so I sent a film. I probably ruined everything.”
“No, no, not at all,” Wasserman Schultz responded, laughing, according to the pool report.
The two Democrats blasted Trump for his rhetoric on foreign policy and toward minorities, moving the focus from the DNC email scandal.
“You know, it’s true that when you’ve never run for public office before, going out there and, you know, getting on the biggest stage in the world, you’re bound to make mistakes,” Biden said. “But … some of the things that he does and says sort of defy logic for me.”
“We can’t let Donald Trump get anywhere near the White House,” added Wasserman Schultz. “When it comes to issues that are important in Florida, when you’ve got a candidate like Donald Trump who starts out insulting an entire people by declaring Mexicans rapists and drug dealers, then says he’s going to ban an entire religion from coming into this country, has made the most mysoginistic and outrageous statements, and then denigrates the service of a military family whose son gave their life for this country.”