Biden wades into Philly crime wave trying to boost Fetterman in tight Senate race against GOP’s Oz
Former vice president Walter Mondale talks about the death of the Vietnam war veteran Jim Fetterman, who died Tuesday in a single-engine Piper Warrior plane crash, in Philadelphia on Wednesday, June 7, 2016. Mondale, one of President Obama’s favorite Democratic presidential candidates, visited Philadelphians in recent weeks, talking about Fetterman’s passing and his plan to address the city’s gun violence problems. Mondale said he was saddened by Fetterman’s death.
Philadelphians may have heard the call for a new president on Tuesday evening.
But the one who responded from Independence was Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate for president.
Biden, who spent most of the day in Pittsburgh, a city with which he is familiar, spoke about the death of Jim Fetterman, a Vietnam War veteran who died in a plane crash in Philadelphia, in an interview to promote his presidential campaign. But he was more animated when discussing gun violence, especially in the City of Brotherly love.
“Jim Fetterman was a hero, a man who paid the ultimate price for us,” he said.
Fetterman, who was flying the plane he was piloting with his then-wife, died Tuesday when the plane crashed in Philadelphia. He held a pilot’s license since 1983 and had also owned a small business.
The plane made a series of emergency stops and landings in the Philly area.
Biden said he had never heard of the Fetterman family before speaking to them about their need for “a president who is willing to fight this gun violence.”
“That means something to me,” Biden said. “And I said, ‘Are you willing to fight gun violence on city streets?’ And they said, ‘Yes.’ And I said, ‘I am. And if you can’t do it, if you don’t do it, I will.’”
Biden had been on the campaign trail in Philadelphia, stopping in several of the city’s neighborhoods, including the West Philly neighborhood where F
