Biden uses Mexican restaurant speech to tell Latinos flocking to Republicans he 'desperately needs your help' and reminds them Trump 'calls you rapists and drug dealers'

President Joe Biden told Latino voters in Arizona that he 'desperately' needs their help in November and reminds them Donald Trump called them 'rapists and drug dealers.'

Biden was not short for words as he courted the important voting bloc, which has flocked to Trump's side since the 2020 presidential election.

The president spent time in a Mexican restaurant in Phoenis on Tuesday, chatting with supporters, kissing a baby, taking selfies, and reminding voters why they should give him four more years. 

President Joe biden greets a little supporter at El Portal restauran

Polls show Trump's stature among Latinos has risen since the last contest with some surveys showing him winning more than 40 percent of the Latino vote - a level not seen for a Republican in two decades.

Biden, on a two-day campaign swing to Nevada and Arizona to court these voters, reminded them of what Trump has called them.

'This election is not a referendum on me. It's an election between me and a guy named Trump and this is a guy who whose way he talks about particular communities. In 2016 he called Latinos criminals, drug dealers and rapists. He said immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country,' Biden told supporters at the El Portal restaurant in downtown Phoenix.

'You're the reason why in large part I beat Donald Trump,' Biden said, met with cheers from the crowd. 'I need you badly.'

He even brought up running mate Kamala Harris, telling the crowd: 'Kamala and I desperately need your help.'

In Arizona, Trump leads Biden by five points in the RealClearPolitics polling average. In Nevada, Trump is up by six points in the polling average.

In their 2020 contest, Biden won both states by close margins. He carried Nevada by 2 percent and won Arizona by just 10,000 votes out of more than 3 million cast. It was the first time Arizona voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1996. 

Latino voters in particular have been gravitating toward Trump. The campaign is opening up bilingual offices in each state.

President Joe Biden poses for a photo before he speaks at a campaign event at El Portal

'I need you badly,' President Joe Biden told supporters in Arizona

President Joe Biden mimics a baby during a campaign event at a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix 

Latinos make up roughly one in four eligible voters in Arizona and Nevada. 

Arizona Democratic Party chairwoman Yolanda Bejarano said the Biden team needed to do more to talk about the president's accomplishments.

'I think it's that we have not been talking to folks about the issues that President Biden has been delivering on and that's what we are determined to do,' she told reporters after the president's event in Phoenix. 

She said Latinos were drawn to Trump because 'people like to be entertained. And sometimes Donald Trump, what he does is it provides that entertainment. People like laugh at his rallies, you know, it's like they're going to a circus. They're listening to him just joke about things - very, very serious things.'

'We just need to be very, very focused and you know, make sure that Latinos understand exactly who Donald Trump is and what a danger he presents to us.'

Arizona, particularly Maricopa county, the home of Phoenix, was the epicenter of the post-2020 election battle after Trump falsely claimed he won the state and his supporters conducted recounts to try and find evidence of fraud (they didn't).

Polls show Donald Trump making major gains with Latino voters

US President Joe Biden in more casual shoes as he walks to Marine One as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, March 13, 2024

In Phoenix Biden will discuss his 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which helped boost semiconductor factory jobs in the area. 

Arizona holds its primary on Tuesday, the day Biden is in the state. Progressives in the state are encouraging a protest vote against Biden over his handling of Israel's war in Gaza. Organizers are urging Democrats to cast their ballots for Marianne Williamson.

Democrats are also hopeful about efforts in each of those states to put initiatives on the 2024 ballot that would enact a state constitutional right to abortion. The party successfully used the issue to rally its voters - particularly women - to the polls in the 2022 midterm.