Moments later, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, who had addressed the crowd earlier, brought out a friend of his: one Vice President Joe Biden, who immediately took off his suit jacket — it was north of 80 degrees, after all — and threw on his signature aviators. The crowd cheered.
With less than a week until Election Night, Biden is one of several presidential candidate surrogates who've been making the rounds in Florida over the past week or so as the race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump gets closer and closer.
In Tampa Wednesday, he contrasted Clinton's plans for boosting the middle class and equality with Donald Trump’s, which Biden said will do neither.
“I never thought that we'd be debating and having the rest of the world looking at us and wondering whether or not we treated people with dignity and respect,” he said.
Biden, who regularly travels internationally and talks politics with leaders from other countries, said the tone of the election — namely Trump's remarks about immigrants, women and minorities — is giving the wrong impression of Americans to people in other parts of the world.
“They are stunned by some of the things that have been said in this campaign by our opponent," he said. "This crudeness, the denigration of people. It is, in a generic sense, un-American. People aren't used to hearing this kind of vitriol coming from a candidate for President of the United States of America.”
In playing up Clinton's economic vision, he frequently mentioned his own middle-class cred.
Clinton's proposals to offer free community college for those who qualify and debt-free college for most support growth of the middle class, as do investments in infrastructure and renewable energy. Republicans — namely Trump, he said — instead want to go backwards and embrace antiquated attitudes and industries while ignoring the spirit of ingenuity.
"What bothers me the most is the way that Republicans across the board…dumb down America's prospects," he said before launching into an anecdote about a conversation he had with the president of China, who asked him to define America. "I said one word could define America: possibilities…There's not a thing we can’t do."
Trump, meanwhile, plans on maintaining economic policies that benefit only the wealthiest, said Biden, adding that the Republican's track record shows that he's no friend to small businessmen, despite his appeals to the working and middle class.
“In his sixth bankruptcy he stiffed more workers than you can count, and he said on national television during the debate, 'Maybe I didn't like the quality of their work.’ Well Trump, maybe I don't like the quality of what you say,” Biden said.
Biden's speech was preceded by remarks from a number of local luminaries, who told the audience to do everything they can to get every voter they know to vote for Clinton.
State Sen. Arthenia Joyner called Trump "bombastic, blowhard, bullying, insulting, name-calling."
"The funny thing about bullies is how quickly they run when someone has the courage to stand up to them," she said.
Buckhorn told the audience that he is terrified at the thought of his daughters coming of age in a country with a president who assesses females solely on the basis of their appearance. He urged those who believe Trump's past comments about women are unacceptable to go to the polls, given how close this historic race is, especially in the key swing state of Florida.
"Your voice can send Donald Trump back to wherever he came from," he said.
This article appears in Oct 27 – Nov 3, 2016.