President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will both be in different parts of Iowa on Tuesday.
Trump will tour an ethanol plant on the western side of the state and then head to a fundraiser in West Des Moines, while Biden will host events in Ottumwa and eastern Iowa.
The latest polls have Biden in the lead in Iowa, though the vice president skipped a major party event in Cedar Rapids over the weekend that saw 19 Democratic presidential candidates. Biden was attending his granddaughter’s graduation.
Biden has been in the state before, campaigning back in April. Biden’s message this time around: He plans to address being in the same state as Trump head on.
“You know, Donald Trump and I are both in Iowa today. It wasn’t planned that way, but I hope Trump’s presence here will be a clarifying event,” Biden wrote in prepared remarks for his event in Davenport, which will take place while the president attends a fundraiser for the Iowa GOP party.
Biden’s remarks, released early by the campaign, mark some of Biden’s most pointed attacks of the president — mentioning his name 44 times, and hitting Trump for his tariff policy and the impact it has on Iowa farmers and manufacturers.
“Trump doesn’t get the basics. He thinks his tariffs are being paid by China. Any beginning econ student at Iowa or Iowa State could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs. The cashiers at Target see what’s going on; they know more about economics than Trump.”
Biden also plans to hit Trump for his health care policy and denial of climate change.
“[S]till Trump denies climate change. What did he tell Piers Morgan in that interview? “Well the weather goes both ways,” the former vice president is set to say.
“It reminds me of when he tweeted in the winter that since it was cold outside there was no climate warming. Or how about when he said the way to deal with California’s fires was to rake the leaves? It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.”
Overall, Biden will say, “I believe Trump is an existential threat to America.
“I’ve said many times that we can overcome four years of Trump – but if we give him eight years in the White House he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation,” Biden will say, according to the prepared remarks.
In Council Bluffs, Trump is expected to tout his plan to allow year-round sales of gasoline mixed with 15% ethanol, as well as his administration’s farm policies. Later that day, he will attend a private fundraiser hosted by the Iowa GOP.
