DES MOINES, Iowa — Despite a sharp drop in the polls, Biden showed few signs of trying to up his game in the Democratic primary battle.
During a visit to first-voting Iowa, Biden kept his schedule light, with only four events over two days, two of them a parade and a baseball game. Also in Iowa, his rival California Sen. Kamala Harris held five stops, all of which had intimate interactions with Iowa voters, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders attended nine events over three days.
Biden slammed Trump during his July 4 remarks for the holiday, but the former vice president avoided the kind of specific policy detail that his opponent Elizabeth Warren, who now leads in one Iowa poll, has used to her benefit.
He may also have stymied himself by vowing not to attack fellow Democrats, a promise almost impossible to stick to if he wants to win a close contest. In what appeared to have been a characteristically loose-lipped aside, he said in an interview that his campaign had gathered dirt on his rivals, a sign that he is prepared to descend into the mud if he has to.
“It’s not enough to be against the way Donald Trump conducts himself — the way he assaults the dignity of women, people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals — we have to be against his policies that are further entrenching economic inequality in this nation,” Biden said in Marshalltown. “That too is an attack on our democracy — on our liberty. That’s the message I’ve been taking all across this nation.”
Shortly before Biden, 76, landed in Iowa on Wednesday, a new poll from A Focus on Rural America found that Biden’s lead among the 2020 pack in the state vanished. That survey showed Biden in third place with 17% behind Warren with 20% and Harris with 18%. While Biden still leads in national polls, opinions in early-voting states are much more important because poor showings there are catastrophic.
As much as Biden would like to avoid confronting his plummeting poll numbers, his debate spat with Harris carried through at several campaign stops.
When asked by a reporter how he felt about his debate performance in June following a parade in Independence, he said he was pleased and that he remains unconcerned about polls because “I’m still way ahead.”
“Look, she’s a good person, she is smart as can be, and she feels strongly,” he said of Harris before adding that he believed her remarks “came out of nowhere” and “didn’t seem to be something at all consistent with anything I’d been accused of before.”
“Let’s move on and talk about what do we do now,” he said.
For Biden’s supporters, a sense of unease lingered during his campaign stops. While most in attendance believe he’s the best chance Democrats have to win back the White House in 2020, many raised concerns about whether he’s already running out of steam over seven months before the caucuses.
“This is my second time I’ve went to see Biden speak when he’s been in Iowa. I like how he made his speech different for the holiday, but he seemed a bit tired,” Kathy Schilling, 62, told the Washington Examiner in Marshalltown. “I think we need a moderate who can win against Trump, so I was a little worried about his debate performance.”
A United Autoworkers member named Mike in Waterloo, who declined to give his last name because his union had not yet chosen a candidate to support, said Biden needed to gather more support from organized labor if he wants to secure the Democratic nomination.
“These kind of stops are great, but he’s gotta be here more. Joe knows us union guys, but a lot of our members feel like they don’t know him anymore,” he said. “A lot of unions were forced to endorse Hillary back in 2016 and our members weren’t happy about it.”
While Biden played it safe over his two-day trip, Harris, who has nearly 65 staff members in Iowa, courted local state leaders and organizations to build on her post-debate momentum.
During her first night in the state on July 3, Harris attended a NARAL Pro-Choice America event and spoke about the importance of abortion access. Biden’s events, meanwhile, were all independent.
Harris also directed a number of her remarks at Trump, making the case that Biden isn’t the only candidate in the race who can rally Democrats to victory in 2020.
“Donald Trump has predatory nature and predatory instincts,” she said in West Des Moines on Wednesday. “The thing about predators, you should know, is that they prey on the vulnerable. They prey on those who they do not believe are strong. The thing about predators you must, most importantly, know: Predators are cowards.”
