Joe Biden, the Democratic frontrunner to take on President Trump in 2020, isn’t interested in discussing why voters should cast their lot with him.
“It’s for them to decide,” he said during a recent stop in Iowa.
In an awkward interview with WQAD’s Denise Hnytka, the 76-year-old former vice president made zero effort to persuade Iowans he’s the man for the job. Instead, he was oddly combative to softball questions as he refused to explain how his vision will improve the economy and blamed President Trump for ruining farming in the Hawkeye State.
“Presidential campaigns are so often about what’s going wrong with the current president,” Hnytka told Biden. “What is President Trump doing right?”
“I can’t think of anything,” Biden shot back with a smirk.
“You can’t think of anything?”
“No, I’m not being facetious. I mean, the way he is separating us from the rest of the world, the way he’s walked away from acknowledging there’s any climate problem. The way he’s not told the truth,” Biden said.
“I’m sure there’s things he’s done that I’m unaware of,” he added, “but there’s nothing I can think of lately.”
File this in the ‘why is Biden even running for president?’ drawer.
Reporter mentions Iowa’s economy is booming.
Reporter: “Why should people want to make a change?”
Biden: “Well that’s up to them to decide.”
Reporter: Well make your case?”
Biden: “I’m not going to.” pic.twitter.com/edmWgsDgRK
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) September 23, 2019
The reporter pointed out one obvious accomplishment that’s having a big impact on Iowa since Trump took office.
“Well, in Iowa, the unemployment rate is at two and half percent,” Hnytka said. “People say they are employed in Iowa and their small businesses are growing. …”
“They, they were, they were empl bef, they were employed before he got elected,” Biden alleged.
“The president won by 10 percentage points in Iowa,” Hnytka said.
“I’m not suggesting he didn’t win by 10 percentage points, what I’m suggesting is he’s not the reason for the unemployment rate being down,” Biden said.
“But why should people want to make a change, though?” Hnytka pressed.
Biden didn’t want to get into it.
“That’s up to them to decide,” he said.
She tried again.
“Why should they?” Hnytka questioned.
“That’s for them to decide,” an icy Biden repeated with an awkward silence.
“Well, make your case,” she pushed.
“I’m not going to,” Biden shot back.
Instead, the career politician launched into a lecture about how Trump is allegedly dooming farmers in Iowa with a future of floods and other natural disasters.
“The fact is, the farmers are in real trouble. Manufacturing is being lost here in the state because of a trade policy that makes no sense,” Biden alleged. “You are moving in a direction where you’re having floods he acknowledges that have nothing to do with the environment. The lands are flooding, your rivers are flooding. And so, there is a lot of reasons why,” Biden said.
The back and forth concluded on a better note when Hnytka questioned Biden on his plans to expand railroad transportation to combat changes in the climate.
“Why is rail so important to your climate change plan?” she asked.
“Because it takes hundreds of thousands of cars off the road, hundreds of thousands of cars,” Biden said. “It saves billions of gallons of gasoline over time.”
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