Mario Chirichigno couldn’t help but chuckle when Vice President Joe Biden used the word “malarkey.”

“There’s no one like Joe Biden,” said Chirichigno, a 75-year-old native of Lima, Peru, who came to Colorado in 1960.

Chirichigno joined a couple dozen Colorado Democrats on Wednesday night to watch the third night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The gathering at the party’s coordinated campaign office in Aurora was one of several held around the state this week.

Biden captivated the Democrats with his speech slamming Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“How can there be pleasure in saying, ‘You’re fired?'” Biden said. “He’s trying to tell us he cares about the middle class? Give me a break. That’s a bunch of malarkey.”

George Parrish, who spent 26 years in the Air Force, nodded his head in agreement as Biden told the crowd that Trump “doesn’t have a clue about the middle class.”

Parrish said he’s never wavered in his support for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, unlike some Democrats who have backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

He shook his head about the “Bernie or Bust” crowd of delegates and protesters who disrupted the the convention’s first days. “They’re kids,” he said. “They’re young. They haven’t grown up yet. They have to understand that Bernie did what he had to do to start a revolution. But the thing is, just because he didn’t win doesn’t mean that you stop working.”

The Democrats at the Aurora watch party are all campaign volunteers and, in between speeches, they called voters to ask if they’ll support Clinton, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and congressional candidate state Sen. Morgan Carroll.

Aurora resident Michael Clemmons, a 29-year-old medical software salesman, is a converted Sanders supporter who said he’s always been open to voting for Clinton. While some voters he’s spoke with are having a hard time letting go of their support of Sanders, Clemmons said he believes they will eventually support Clinton.

“She really has done a great job at the convention, the speakers have done a great job, unifying the party,” Clemmons said.

Though he was a big fan of President Bill Clinton’s speech on the second day of the convention, Clemmons said Obama was “the closer” with his speech passing the torch to Hillary Clinton.

– info@coloradostatesman.com