President Biden touted a high-speed rail project connecting Las Vegas to Southern California, funded with billions of federal dollars, while campaigning in Nevada on Tuesday.
“Guess what? It's coming,” he told supporters at a campaign event in Reno. “Over a billion dollars, man. And they can get there… it's not that nobody wants to get to Los Angeles, but the “People from Los Angeles want to get to Nevada. Well, they'll do it in two hours instead of four, they'll take tens of thousands of vehicles off the road and they'll improve the environment.”
The planned rail line actually ends in Rancho Cucamonga, in San Bernardino County, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.
Biden made the remarks at the start of a two-day visit to Western swing states that focuses primarily on Latino voters and pocketbook issues such as the cost of insulin, housing affordability, job creation and the taxes.
His campaign announced a new ad focused on Latino voters, produced in English, Spanglish and Spanish, as well as the launch of Latinos. scam Biden-Harris, an effort to mobilize Latino voters when there has been concern about weakening support among Latinos for the Democratic candidacy.
Nevada and Arizona, where Biden will spend Tuesday and Wednesday, are critical to his re-election prospects. And the issues that are on the minds of these states, such as immigration, the economy, election denialism and abortion rights, are driving forces in the presidential race between Biden and former President Trump.
At events in Reno and Las Vegas on Tuesday, Biden twice mentioned the 218-mile, $12 billion route between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga that private company Brightline hopes to open by 2028. With speeds of up to 200 mph , to be the first true high-speed rail line in the United States.
The federal government is spending $3 billion on the project, in addition to offering access to $3.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds.
The Biden administration is also spending more than $3 billion on the public high-speed rail project that is supposed to link San Francisco to Los Angeles, but that line has faced many more logistical and political obstacles and much more skepticism from The experts.
Biden, noting that the Vegas-Rancho Cucamonga line is expected to create 35,000 jobs, said in an official appearance at the White House in Las Vegas that he hoped the project would “encourage” the creation of the high-speed rail line through of the Central Valley. .
“The idea that we haven't built a single high-speed train in the United States so far is ridiculous,” Biden said.
Republicans said the Biden administration's policies have been disastrous for Nevadans.
“Nevada families are being crushed by Joe Biden’s failures, from historic inflation and an open border to skyrocketing overdose deaths across the state,” Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement. . “Nevadans want results, not empty words, which is why they will vote to elect President Donald J. Trump in November.”
Times staff writer Noah Bierman in Washington, DC, contributed to this report.
