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Beautiful. So proud. Love to all.

On Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 5:08 PM Bill Russo <wrusso@vpbiden.org> wrote:

> All -
>
> Per VP's request, sharing the below article from Edward-Isaac Dovere, now
> writing at *The Atlantic,* on last night's rally in Iowa.
>
> Regards,
> Bill
>
>
> *The Atlantic: Biden Stumps in Iowa As He Ponders 2020 (Dovere)*
>
>
>
> *The former vice president drew enthusiastic crowds and said he was “sick
> and tired” of the Trump administration.*
>
>
>
> CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa—Joe Biden’s plan was to avoid Iowa during his
> nationwide midterm campaigning—he didn’t want to feed the 2020 talk that he
> and his aides knew it would spark, and wasn’t sure what kind of crowd it
> would bring.
>
>
>
> Tuesday night, he arrived here at the veterans hall downtown and raised
> his arms up and saluted the crowd of over 1,000 cheering for him,
> applauding him, laughing along with every joke of the well-worn stump
> speech he’s delivered 50 times in the past six weeks.
>
>
>
> “Hello Iowa! Hello Cedar Rapids!” he said, as he stood behind a podium
> with a VOTE IOWA sign taped to the front. “It’s been a long time!”
>
>
>
> It’s been three and a half years since he was in Iowa last, when he came
> on an official trip as vice president that was all about keeping the
> flirtation with a 2016 campaign going.
>
>
>
> He delivered a harsh but hopeful speech that left many people thinking
> that he’d be back before long, in pursuit of the 2020 campaign he’s set a
> moving deadline to make his mind up on. Then again, this was a crowd filled
> with Biden true believers who cheered when Iowa Democratic Party chairman
> Troy Price kicked off the event by saying, “Who’s ready for Joe?” Several
> came in old T-shirts from his 2008 presidential campaign and a woman who
> had made a custom “Biden 2020” shirt with the zeroes made of printed
> ribbons.
>
>
>
> “We have to make it clear as Democrats we choose hope over fear. We choose
> unity over division. We choose allies over enemies,” Biden said, closing a
> 40-minute speech that capped a day with two other speeches in Wisconsin and
> a fundraiser for the gubernatorial candidate there. “This is America.
> Nothing’s beyond our grasp.”
>
>
>
> Many of the prospective 2020 candidates have started cycling through—Cory
> Booker, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, as well as lesser known hopefuls
> like Congressman John Delaney; Congressman Tim Ryan; South Bend,
> Indiana,Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Congressman Eric Swalwell. None have
> drawn a crowd this big, or this excited. None have convinced Fred Hubbell,
> the Democrat trying to unseat Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds by grabbing
> independent and Republican voters, to appear with them—but by the end of
> the night, as Biden worked the crowd for over half an hour after finishing
> his remarks, it was Hubbell who was trying to squeeze into the frame for
> some of the selfies.
>
>
>
> For all the people who pushed their way forward to tell him that they
> remembered the last time they met, or what big fans they were, Biden did
> not stay long. This isn’t a full campaign swing, the way the people who may
> soon be his opponents have done. He didn’t even stay the night, instead
> flying out immediately to continue his final week push, with stops on
> Wednesday in Illinois and Missouri, and Thursday as the only major Democrat
> still hoping to help North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp hold onto a Senate
> seat that most Democrats believe has fallen out of their grasp.
>
>
>
> Officially, Biden agreed to come to help Abby Finkenauer, the state
> legislator hoping to beat Congressman Rod Blum in a race that is more
> competitive than Democrats had hoped or expected it would be by this point.
> Finkenauer’s campaign appealed to Biden to come on the argument that he
> could make the difference in her winning, according to people familiar, as
> she tries to get the white Catholic voters that are Biden’s core base to
> feel comfortable voting for a 29 year-old woman.
>
>
>
> “He is here tonight because of the values that we share,” Finkenauer said,
> introducing Biden to the crowd.
>
>
>
> Biden began by speaking about the last week of terrorism, between the mail
> bombs sent to top Democrats and to CNN, the shooting of the two black
> people in a supermarket by a gunman who’d tried to go into a church and the
> massacre of 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue on Saturday morning.
>
>
>
> “We need to recognize that words matter. Words matter,” Biden said. “We
> have to recognize, and take responsibility as well, our political opponents
> are not our enemies. The media are not our enemies. We are Americans.”
>
>
>
> He spoke about stress levels spiking in Generation Z, and his dismay at
> the moral equivalence that’s been made for racists.
>
>
>
> And he attacked the Republicans who claim now that they are for protecting
> pre-existing conditions in healthcare: “Simple, unadulterated lie,” he said.
>
>
>
> Biden started the day Tuesday in Madison at the University of Wisconsin.
> Over 1,000 people came to that event too, despite it starting at 9:30 in
> the morning on a college campus. Most of them were students.
>
>
>
> Biden invoked civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer’s famous remark as he
> drew a connection between the fight then and now.
>
>
>
> “I am sick and tired of this administration,” Biden said. “I am sick and
> tired of what’s going on. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired and I
> hope you are too.”
>
>
>
> ---
> Bill Russo
> Spokesperson
> Office of Vice President Joe Biden