Biden on GOP White House race: It’s a ‘gift from the Lord’

BALTIMORE – Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday likened the Republican presidential race to a “gift from the Lord” for Democrats trying to win control of the House and Senate.

Biden joked to House Democrats at their annual retreat in Baltimore that he doesn’t know which Republican to root for, though he didn’t refer to any by name. Many Republicans are worried that front-runner Donald Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz could be a drag on other Republicans on the ballot in a general election.

Democrats say a Trump or Cruz candidacy could be a windfall in their uphill battle to regain control of the House, where their numbers are the lowest since the Truman administration in the late 1940s.

“And by the way, we may be given a gift from the Lord in the presidential race here. I don’t know who to root for more,” Biden told House Democrats.

Democrats would need to gain 30 seats in this November’s elections to capture a House majority. Republicans currently outnumber them 247-188, a number that includes a vacant GOP district in Ohio that the party seems certain to retain.

Yet analysts agree Democrats have no real chance of winning control because only two to three dozen House seats are considered in play this fall, thanks to computer-drawn district lines that protect most incumbents.

The prospects are better in the Senate, where Democrats need to gain four seats if the party holds the White House. Republicans have more seats to defend, 24 to the Democrats’ 10, and many of those GOP seats are in states President Barack Obama won, including Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio.