Democratic White House candidate Joe Biden, pictured in Waukee, Iowa on January 30, 2020, is barnstorming the state in an attempt to win his party’s presidential nomination (JIM WATSON)

Waukee (United States) (AFP) – Joe Biden went on the attack Thursday against Donald Trump, as the Democratic frontrunner campaigned in Iowa hours before the US president jets in to divert attention ahead of the state’s first-in-the-nation vote.

“I can hardly wait to debate this man,” the former vice president told a crowd in Waukee, a whistlestop on his weeklong bus tour across the state.

Trump is trying to “destroy” the healthcare law known as Obamacare, ignores the threat of climate change, has “walked away from our allies and embraced dictators and thugs,” and is at risk of “starting a war with a tweet,” the 77-year-old Democratic party elder added.

Democrats racing to challenge Trump in November’s elections are locked in a tight battle days before the caucuses in Iowa, where candidates are barnstorming the state, countless volunteers are knocking on doors seeking to convince undecided voters, and political advertising carpet-bombed the airwaves.

But while candidates are desperate to stand out against their rivals, occasionally clashing on policy, performance or personalities, Biden has pivoted directly towards the president, suggesting he is already making the case for a Biden-Trump election.

Monday’s vote is the effective starting line of a race that has endured a yearlong warm-up, with the largest and most diverse Democratic field in history seeking to identify a unified party vision that they believe can prevent a Trump re-election. 

With a dozen candidates converging on Iowa to make their final pitches, the race is tight. Far-left Senator Bernie Sanders, 78, is leading the charge in the state, with Biden hot on his heels. 

Two more candidates, centrist former Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, 38, and progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren, 70, are within striking distance, with a fifth candidate, 59-year-old Senator Amy Klobuchar, in the second-tier but hoping to land a major upset.

Their divergent political views suggest Democrats remain undecided on which path the torchbearer should take in the general election, and Trump is likely to mock Democrats’ struggle to identify a clear-cut challenger.

– Fluid race –

He jets in to snowy Des Moines Thursday evening for a rally and will hammer Democrats over their efforts to remove him from office via the ongoing Senate impeachment trial that has infuriated the Republican base.

He will also boast about a chugging US economy and highlight the signing of a sweeping new trade agreement including the United States, Mexico and Canada.

The president will make a prior stop in the battleground state of Warren, Michigan, where he will deliver remarks on the USMCA trade pact.

With many Iowa voters still undecided, the Democratic race remains fluid.

But the party’s statewide chairman, Troy Price, said the large number of undecided voters so close to the caucus was due to “so many great candidates” running this cycle.

“We may not have a good sense of the outcome until we start getting the results on caucus night,” he told AFP.

But there was broad agreement in opposition to Trump.

“They’re so ready for a change,” Price said. “They’re tired of the fighting, they’re tired of the broken promises that this president has made.”

Complicating matters, Sanders, Warren and Klobuchar largely have been tied to Washington for Trump’s impeachment trial, denying them crucial face time with fastidious Iowa voters.

Warren boasts the best ground game in Iowa and won the endorsement of the state’s largest newspaper, the Des Moines Register, last week, but her campaign has failed to convert those advantages into greater support.

Her surrogates, including her husband Bruce Mann and their golden retriever Bailey, were mounting an 11th-hour campaign blitz without her this week, seeking to win over undecided Iowa voters.

Biden meanwhile was rumbling past picturesque snowy cornfields on a “Soul of the Nation” bus tour, at each stop accusing Trump of smearing him because he was “scared” of running against Biden. 

“I think we’d all agree that character — the character of the nation — is on the ballot,” Biden told supporters Wednesday.

Biden has been linked by name to the impeachment trial whose charges against Trump focus on the president withholding military aid from Ukraine last year until its president committed to investigating Biden and his son Hunter.

Disclaimer: Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Source: AFP.