Joe Biden prides himself on his “working/middle class” status, often referring to himself as “Middle Class Joe.” A “humble fighter for workers,” his claim that he is “one of us” rests on two factors. The first is his “working class” connection with Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the second is his repeated declaration of his own poverty. “I entered as one of the poorest men in Congress, left one of the poorest men in government, in Congress and as vice president,” Biden boasted in 2019.
During the final presidential debate, Biden was keen to hammer home his “man of the people” routine, saying “where I come from in Scranton and Claymont, the people don’t live off of the stock market,” and “You folks at home, you folks living in Scranton, how well are you doing?”
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