Interview: Joe Biden On Party Divides, Iowa Chances And Old Friends

Photo by Julie Fleming

By Paige Godden

February 1, 2020

Just minutes after the Iowa Poll was supposed to come out Saturday night, Joe Biden sat in a leather chair on his campaign bus parked outside the National Cattle Congress Pavilion in Waterloo.

He was fidgeting with a black BIC pen — the kind that clicks — when he said he didn’t have enough information to know whether the fact Iowans may never see the result of the CNN/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll will have an impact on his campaign.

“I just feel good about where we are right now,” Biden said. “It feels good — the enthusiasm and some of the internal stuff that we’ve seen.”

Biden declined to comment during a one-on-one interview with Iowa Starting Line on the tension that’s been building in the last few days between Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“I don’t know,” Biden said when he was directly asked whether Sanders has been doing enough to discourage division between his supporters and the Democratic Party. “I don’t know enough to make an intelligent response on it.”

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In the end, though, Biden said he believes Sanders supporters will show up to participate in the general election this November, no matter who ends up being the Democratic nominee.

“I keep being told a lot of Bernie supporters won’t show up, and I hear all of that, but I don’t — I don’t think the vast majority of folks [buy into] what some are suggesting; that somehow Barack was a failure and we’re leaving the traditional Democratic Party that focuses on significantly liberal initiatives, and focuses on ethics, and focuses on the middle class,” Biden said. “I don’t know, I just don’t think that’s the base of the party.”

Biden then threw the conversation back to the Vietnam War. He said when he first ran for the United States Senate in the early 1970s, it was a very bitter time.

“George McGovern only got 30 or 40 percent of the vote in my state and I barely won,” Biden said. “I was labeled then, and I had been all through my career until this time around, as a liberal Democrat.”

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Still, Biden won his seat with overwhelming support across the board, particularly with the help of young people.

“So, maybe I’m a little jaded thinking that I’ve been through divisions in the party that have been real,” Biden said. “But I think they’ve always been united by the fact they’ve had a target that has united them. That target is Trump.”

Biden said even though Americans knew how bad Trump was, “no one knew how bad Trump was going to be.”

“I think it’s awful hard for any Democrat who cares about the issues, whether they’re Bernie’s issues, the degree to which he wants to take them, or AOC, who I’ve defended every time she’s been attacked,” Biden said.

“She apparently doesn’t like me much,” Biden said about New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “But she has a right to say what she wants.”

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But Biden then doubted Sanders’ supporters will “walk away and participate in allowing Trump to be reelected President of the United States of America.”

“Anyway, so maybe I should be more concerned about that, but I’m not at the end of the day,” Biden said. “The party stays together and then you build it. You build them into the party. You give them positions.”

While Biden’s been attacked more than any other candidate while stumping in Iowa, he’s also made a lot of friends here.

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Former Governor and First Lady Tom and Christie Vilsack have joined Biden on the campaign trail, along with Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer, Attorney General Tom Miller and former Secretary of State John Kerry.

Biden said he owes those folks a great debt of gratitude as his big Iowa push comes to a close.

“You know, having so many step up, I just feel an incredible debt of gratitude because … I think they’ve helped a great deal,” Biden said. “The one disadvantage I’ve had is I was out of office and out of the spotlight for three years, and these people come along and they testify to my character, testified to what I’ve accomplished.”

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Biden recognizes he’s been criticized more than most, but he said he won’t complain because his dad used to say, “never complain and never explain.”

“It’s normal because I was the front-runner,” Biden said. “You’re the front-runner, you take the hits. But I’ve been really appreciative of people saying ‘no, no I know this guy. I know what happened. Let me tell you what that vote was about.'”

Biden also said he hopes he’s going to need all of those folks after Iowa is over.

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With just two days until the Iowa caucuses, Biden also took the time to defend Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status.

“I’ll conclude by saying what you’ve probably heard me say before,” Biden said. “It’s a relatively small state, which in fact has in relative terms, no diversity, although there are some African Americans and Latinos, but the thing about the people here, they really take it seriously.”

“And they look beyond just their own immediate self interest,” Biden continued. “If they had someone they thought was perfect but they thought had no chance at beating Donald Trump, they care more about the country. I’ve been impressed with how they approach this, whether I win or lose.”

 

by Paige Godden
Posted 2/1/20

CATEGORIES: Iowa Caucus

Politics

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