Iowa

Aiming at Trump, Biden says a president’s character matters

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) — With four days until the Iowa caucuses, Joe Biden is looking beyond his Democratic rivals and taking square aim at President Donald Trump as the two men campaign within miles of each other on the same day.

“In November, America will have the chance to answer the question: Does the character of a president matter?” Biden said as he delivered a sweeping address on why Trump must be defeated. “I don’t believe we are the dark angry nation that Donald Trump sees in his tweets in the middle of the night,” Biden later added. “America is so much better than this.”

Biden, Buttigieg amplify Sanders criticism before Iowa vote

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) — Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden stepped up their criticisms of Bernie Sanders on Thursday, as moderates are under growing pressure to dull any momentum the progressive senator may gain heading into next week’s Iowa caucuses.

Biden, a former vice president, was blunt when asked by reporters to contrast himself with Sanders, who has long identified as a democratic socialist and was elected as an independent senator from Vermont.

Sanders’ Social Security ‘adjustments’ undercut Biden attack

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As a congressman in the 1990s, Bernie Sanders expressed an openness to making “adjustments” to the tax and benefit structure of Social Security. He also praised an overhaul of the social safety net program signed into law by President Ronald Reagan that reduced benefits and increased taxes on working families.

Sanders’ presidential campaign and allies have highlighted similar remarks by Joe Biden to attack the former vice president and make the explosive charge that Biden was an outspoken proponent of slashing the program.

Biden's final Iowa drive sweeps through rival territory

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (Reuters) - When U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden went to an Iowa university to campaign this week, one thing was in short supply: students who support him.

“What’s an old guy like you going to do to get the young people to come out and vote,” a person at a University of Northern Iowa (UNI) town hall asked Biden on Monday, noting “there’s not very many here.”

Biden, 77, joked that it can be difficult to get college students to show up before 4 p.m. and, indeed, a few more young people appeared at a later campaign event at the University of Iowa.

Organization becomes critical in final week before Iowa vote

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — At nearly nine p.m. on Saturday, Samy Amkieh was about to head back to his office after braving 20 degree temperatures to knock on doors for three hours in East Des Moines. But the 20-year-old field organizer knocked on one more door and was rewarded by convincing the resident to be a team leader for Bernie Sanders at a nearby caucus location.

Who can topple Trump? Dems’ electability fight rages in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The urgent fight for the Democratic presidential nomination raged across Iowa on Sunday as the party’s leading candidates scrambled to deliver closing arguments centered on the defining question of the 2020 primary: Who can beat President Donald Trump?

Former Vice President Joe Biden demonstrated the breadth of his appeal by appearing at separate events with Catholics, union members and African Americans. He told black voters with a smile that “I’ve gone to more black churches than you have, probably, because I’m older.”

Biden and Sanders’ rift could define closing days in Iowa

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — The rivalry between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders is deepening as the Democratic presidential candidates are increasingly at loggerheads over their support of Social Security, signaling a battle ahead that could last well beyond the Iowa caucuses.

Biden’s campaign released a video late Tuesday accusing Sanders of “dishonest” attacks, while Sanders’ official Twitter account countered: “Let’s be honest, Joe. One of us fought for decades to cut Social Security, and one of us didn’t.”

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