Joe Biden on Tuesday hit up the law firm that paid disgraced Assembly speaker Shelly Silver loads of cash for steering clients their way — a day after one of President Trump’s top supporters turned down the former veep’s plea for a donation.
Biden spoke to a few dozen employees at the East Village law firm Weitz and Luxenberg, which paid the twice-convicted Silver hundreds of thousands to steer cancer patients to its lawyers.
Silver was convicted of pocketing roughly $4 million, but remains free on bail as he appeals his second conviction.
The law firm was not charged, and claimed to have been duped by the powerful then-speaker.
Biden called for restoring the “soul” of the country and its standing in the international arena, championing the middle class and defeating Trump.
He also downplayed his current status atop the polls.
“I don’t believe the polls right now, guys,” he said. “This is a marathon. It is true we’re ahead. It is true we feel good about where we’re going. That means two things: One, there’s a target on my back,” he said, adding that he meant that “figuratively.”
“And two, things are gonna change. It always does,” he said. “It always does.”
He also took a shot at Wall Street fat cats in their own backyard.
“Wall Street didn’t build America. Investment bankers didn’t build America. Ordinary Americans built America, given half a chance.”
“People are behind the eight-ball,” he said at another point.
“Ordinary Americans are behind the eight-ball. They need a fair deal,” he said. “We have to start rewarding, rewarding, work as much as we reward wealth.”
Biden spoke earlier to about 100 people at the Midtown firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which issued the report in the 2015 “Deflategate” controversy involving New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
Biden also told those in attendance, who forked over $2,800 each for the privilege, that the “wealth gap” was a threat to America.
“The fact of the matter is, you represent a lot of really good people, you represent a lot of people in need, you represent everybody,” he said.
“But here’s the deal: This wealth gap that exists in the United States of America is so profound now, it is the stuff of which — not revolutions but political disillusionment — occurs. Disillusion occurs.”
Meanwhile, supermarket magnate and top GOP donor John Catsimatidis said he turned Biden down during a fundraiser Monday night after the longtime Delaware senator hit him up for cash at the New York home of short seller Jim Chanos.
“I just smiled,” said Catsimatidis, a loyal Trump supporter.
Catsimatidis, who owns the New York supermarket chain Gristedes and ran for mayor in 2013, praised Biden, but said he was sticking with Trump in 2020.
“I think Joe Biden is the most common sense nominee of the 23 people running in the Democratic Party,” he said, CNBC reported.
“Monetarily, I did not commit to helping him but I will help him brotherly, on my radio show and with all my media contacts.”