Joe Biden and Other Candidates Speak to Diverse Faith Leaders, Activists

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Former Vice President Joe Biden kicked off a major forum on faith and poverty issues Monday afternoon, fielding questions from faith leaders and low-income Americans during a gathering organized by the Poor People’s Campaign.

“We have the greatest income inequity… in the United States of America since 1902,” Biden told the crowd of hundreds assembled on Monday (June 17) at Trinity Washington University in Washington, D.C. “But the fact of the matter is there is plenty, plenty to go around.”

Biden, the current frontrunner among Democrats, according to most polls, was also asked questions by the co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign — the Rev. William Barber and the Rev. Liz Theoharis — as well as MSNBC host Joy Reid.

Attendees at the gathering of religious progressives peppered the onetime Delaware senator with questions about how he would address issues impacting the poor, including whether he would campaign in the South — a region that faces some of the largest issues of poverty.

“I plan on winning Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina,” he said. “And I believe we can win Texas and Florida.”

Biden also discussed the issue of health care, saying as president he would make sure “that every single person in the United States has access to Medicaid right off the bat.” He later argued that “you have no…