The unsettled results from the Iowa caucuses have convinced a number of Democratic front-runners that it’s finally time to get into the mud.
Some of the first shots following the Iowa debacle came from Joe Biden, widely regarded as the loser from the first nominating contest on Monday in which he appears to have finished fourth. At a campaign stop Wednesday in New Hampshire, the former vice president blasted Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s socialist bona fides.
“Every Democrat will have to carry the label Senator Sanders chose for himself. He calls him[self], and I don’t mean to criticize him, a ‘democratic socialist,'” Biden, 77, said in Somersworth, New Hampshire. “And we’ve already seen what Donald Trump is going to do with that.”
Sanders, first elected to the House in 1990 and the Senate in 2006, is all talk and no action, Biden said.
“Bernie has talked about the single-payer, ‘Medicare for all’ healthcare system for the country for 30 years, now,” Biden said. “Hasn’t moved it an inch. Matter of fact, both the Vermont past governors have endorsed me.”
At the same campaign rally, Biden aimed his fire at Pete Buttigieg, 38.
“Is he really saying the Obama-Biden administration was a failure? Pete, just say it out loud,” Biden said.
Biden was responding to the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor’s criticisms of him the prior week in Iowa, although Biden appeared uninterested until after his poor performance in the caucuses.
Those results constituted a worst-case scenario for Biden, who landed in fourth place and just above the delegate threshold at roughly 15% of the vote. Before then, Biden kept his remarks short and said, “I have great respect of Mayor Pete and his service to the country.”
But Biden isn’t alone. Elizabeth Warren, who placed third in the caucuses, entered New Hampshire with a strong accusation against Buttigieg.
A top aide to the Massachusetts senator claimed Buttigieg’s campaign might be in violation of federal election law because of a vague tweet on Wednesday.
“Pete’s military experience and closing message from Iowa work everywhere especially in Nevada where it’s critical they see this on the air through the caucus,” wrote Michael Halle, the senior adviser to Buttigieg.
“Was this meant to be a DM [direct message] or did you mean to tweet out this instruction to your super PAC?” Warren’s campaign manager Roger Lau responded.
The accusation was echoed in a press release from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a political action committee closely tied with Warren.
“Pete entered the race as a Boy Scout but has corrupted his brand by becoming the candidate of big-money corporate donors. It’s a slap in the face of campaign finance law to so brazenly and unethically direct a Super PAC how to spend on his behalf — all while leaving New Hampshire to do big-money New York fundraisers,” said PCCC co-founder Adam Green in a statement. “Donald Trump would call him part of the corrupt swamp if he were ever the nominee.”
A RealClearPolitics average of polls shows a tight race in New Hampshire. Although Sanders leads at 25.5% support, Biden trails him at 17.7%, Buttigieg at 15.7%, and Warren at 13.8%.
