Biden, Trump Give Dueling Iowa Speeches

Some big lines and early commentary from both, below
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 11, 2019 6:32 PM CDT
Trump, Biden Are Giving Dueling Iowa Speeches
President Donald Trump smiles while speaking at Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, an ethanol producer, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday, June 11, 2019.   (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

President Trump and 2020 presidential contender Joe Biden gave dueling speeches in Iowa Tuesday—their first time this election cycle campaigning in the same state on the same day, USA Today reports. Big lines from each, starting with Biden, who had three campaign stops in the state. From CNN and others:

  • "[Trump] says, 'let's make America great again.' Let's make America America again," he said—which, Fox points out, is a phrase apparently first coined by Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti. (No worries: Avenatti has used the line to endorse Biden, and tweeted Tuesday, "Since I won't be using it, I’m happy @JoeBiden is using 'Let’s Make America America Again.'")
  • Biden also called Trump an "existential threat" to America: "Four years of Donald Trump will be viewed as an aberration in American history. Eight years, eight years will fundamentally change who we are as a nation, how we're viewed around the world."
  • Biden, who lost son Beau to brain cancer in 2015, said "I promise you if I'm elected president, you're going to see the single most important thing that changes America, we're gonna cure cancer."
  • He also had to speak through a protester at one event, while attendees clapped and chanted to drown him out. The protester yelled, "You have blood on your hands, you have blood on your hands… no he is talking about the Ku Klux Klan… he supports the murder of unborn babies and he wants us to pay for it."
  • Biden has another speech still to come Tuesday night; see his prepared remarks here. Among them: "Trump 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."

And from Trump:

  • The POTUS had his own harsh words for Biden while speaking at a renewable energy event, referring to him as "Sleepy Joe" and accusing him of talking too much about Trump: "He said my name so many times that people couldn’t stand it anymore."
  • He had also slammed Biden as he left for Iowa, calling him a "loser" and a "dummy" who is "weak mentally," per Fox News.
  • Trump signed an executive order while in the state to, as he said, "speed up reviews of [agricultural] biotechnology so that farmers can get access to critical scientific advances faster and reap the full benefits of American innovation for many years into the future."
  • Still to come Tuesday night for Trump: an "America First Dinner," for which tickets started at $250, to raise money for the Iowa Republican Party.
(More Election 2020 stories.)

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