Vice President Joe Biden struck a notably political tone during a speech Wednesday in Iowa, just three days after Hillary Clinton hinted at a presidential bid with a trip to the state.
Biden is thought also to be considering a bid for the presidency in 2016, and his populist arguments in the important presidential election state did little to suggest the opposite.
At an event with Catholic nuns focused on campaign finance reform, billed as an official — not political — visit, Biden criticized Republicans and Democrats alike for not empathizing with the American middle class and its enduring economic frustration.
“We’ve not been talking like we understand their problem,” Biden said. “We talk about recovery, and there is recovery. What we don’t talk about enough is, middle class people don’t feel it.”
An appeal to the country’s working class in nothing new for Biden, who often invokes his upbringing in blue-collar Scranton, Pa. But income inequality and other populist issues are also particularly in vogue among Democrats right now, having been popularized by such progressive icons as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and embracing them could be a strong tack for Biden should he run for president.
“This isn’t a populist rant,” Biden told the small crowd gathered in front of the Iowa state Capitol in Des Moines on Wednesday. “This is about how you build America. And America does better when everyone’s in on the deal.”
Biden’s remarks were not dissimilar from those made by Hillary Clinton over the weekend, when she traveled to Iowa for the first time since 2008 to headline Sen. Tom Harkin’s annual steak fry near Des Moines. Clinton spoke about income inequality, the minimum wage and other issues characteristic of a populist platform.
Biden also called for higher wages relative to work performed and railed against income inequality in America, while calling for reform to the tax code to favor the middle class.
But he also offered a message of economic hope — one that would not seem out of place in a stump speech on the campaign trail.
“It’s never been a good bet to bet against the American people,” Biden said.
Biden also traveled to Iowa last year as the keynote speaker at Harkin’s steak fry.
