Trump, Biden face off in Iowa
US President and former vice-president make campaigning stops in swing state
IOWA : More than a year before the 2020 US presidential election, President Donald Trump and former vice-president Joe Biden went toe to toe in Iowa on Tuesday, trading barbs, testing their messages and providing a glimpse of a potential match-up between the two.
Mr Trump and Mr Biden, the Democratic front runner, were in Iowa on the same day for the first time during the presidential race.
Mr Biden, 76, held a series of campaign stops in the state, which will hold the first nominating contest for Democrats next February.
Mr Trump appeared at an event promoting biofuels and then spoke at a state Republican Party fund-raiser.
"We didn't plan it this way," Mr Biden joked at one event.
But there was little levity between the two men throughout the day. Just four years apart in age, they exhibited dramatically different political styles.
As has long been his approach, Mr Trump, 72, early in the day belittled his potential opponent with a series of insults, mocking Mr Biden's age, appearance and intelligence, and calling him a "loser".
Mr Biden hit back, but in a more restrained way, preferring to focus on Mr Trump's actions as president. At a stop in Ottumwa, he referred to Mr Trump as "a threat to our core values".
Rather than focusing on any single policy issue, Mr Biden's campaign is centred on the notion of a return to public decency and political modesty.
"We have to be a lot more civil in the way we engage one another," Mr Biden told reporters in Mount Pleasant. "The system isn't broken. The politics are broken."- REUTERS
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