Pa. Sen. Casey talks to college students about Biden, the election and the struggles ahead

PHILADELPHIA —  U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., talked to college students Tuesday about the unique challenges today’s young people face.

Chief among the topics in the online session, held via Zoom, was this November’s presidential contest between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. 

“This is the most important Presidential election since at least 1932,” Casey asserted. “They have diametrically opposed views on just about every issue.”

The event was hosted by Nila Cobb, president of Temple Students for Biden, and featured students posing questions to Casey. The first of which was how to get young people excited about the Democratic nominee.

Casey emphasized the importance of the moment and the number of threats facing the country.

“He will face a set of problems that no President has faced since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in March of 1933,” Casey stated, doubling down on his comparison to the Great Depression. “He’s gonna need us even more in January of 2021 because we have a lot of challenges ahead of us.”

When asked how to grow the progressive movement, he pointed to the change young people are already making right now.

“Your generation is moving folks in my generation to consider issues that maybe we didn’t pay enough attention to.”

Among those issues is improving the lives of people of color. Sen. Casey responded to one such query by stating that we all need to self-reflect on whether each of us has done enough. At the same time, he declared that he was inspired by the recent movement.

“There’s a sense of urgency,” Casey observed. “People are petitioning us to make changes as fast as possible. You refused to say that what happened to George Floyd or Breanna Taylor, that that’s just the America we have. Your generation grabbed the reins.”

The discussion also touched on climate change and efforts to reform the police. Casey finished with a plea to those listening to stay involved.

“Let’s go out there and win, and then we’ve got to govern.”