EMAIL DETAILS

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 Bide