Democratic Party activists in Iowa are worried presidential primary frontrunner Joe Biden is stumbling, casting doubt on whether he can whip President Donald Trump in 2020, the Washington Post reported.
The frustration is coming to a head as the candidates descended on Iowa for three big political events over the weekend in the first state that’ll hold a primary contest next year.
“Joe Biden can resonate with the working-class voters that Trump fooled in the last go-round. And that’s what we need: He’s close to the middle. He’s a known quantity. He appeals to middle-class voters,” Alan Feirer, the party chairman in Madison County, Iowa, told the Post.
“But boy, he’s old,” Feirer added. “That shouldn’t be a problem, and you don’t like to say it, but he isn’t as compelling verbally. . . . There is starting to be a real fear that he cannot hold his own in the debate against Donald Trump.”
Another county chairwoman, Tracy Freese, told the Post she’s anxiously waiting for Biden’s breakthrough moment.
“I wish he’d get his mojo back. I know he has it; I just haven’t seen it,” she told the Post, adding however, her bigger goal is for “Republicans to be able to feel comfortable and vote for him.”
Biden gaffs at the Iowa events piled up quick.
In his speech Thursday at the state fair, Biden bungled a line and said, “We choose truth over facts!” And he initially referred to former British prime minister Theresa May as one of her predecessors, Margaret Thatcher. Then speaking before a Latino and Asian group, he briefly appeared to conflate whiteness and wealth.
“We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it,” he said, the Post reported. “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”
He caught himself and quickly added, “Wealthy kids. Black kids, Asian kids. No, I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”
Trump took a shot after the flub, telling reporters “Joe Biden is not playing with a full deck. This is not somebody you can have as your president,” the Post reported.
Still struggling to rally around a single candidate, Iowa Democrats are also jittery about the unprecedentedly large field of Democrats who could ultimately damage the party's shot at beating Trump, the Post reported.
“One reason many of us . . . aren’t ready to put signs in our yard is that we recall the time early in 2008 when a young woman came to our county and stumped for her husband,” Marjie Foster, chair of Decatur County Democrats, told the Post, referring to Michelle and Barack Obama.
“No one had ever heard of her or her husband at the time. But a year later we were inaugurating him, and she was our first lady.”
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