MASON CITY, Iowa — Joe Biden is taking aim at Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren during an eight-day tour of Iowa that the former vice president hopes will help him gain ground in the state that holds the first presidential caucus.
Biden argued Tuesday that Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., is riding his coattails in pushing for a “public option” government-insurance plan to be sold alongside private insurance. He argued that Warren, meanwhile, is out of step with the Democratic Party and the general electorate with her call for a single-payer “Medicare for All” system that would supplant the private insurance market altogether.
Biden entered the race earlier this year as a front-runner, but his increasingly aggressive stance toward Buttigieg and Warren marks a recognition that the race is far from locked up in the crucial states that kick off the primary season. And by zeroing in on health care, Biden is highlighting an issue that he sees as core to his candidacy.
Biden points to his work helping pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010 as an example of the type of leadership experience most of his rivals lack. And he argues that while the other candidates have shifted their positions, he’s been consistent during the 2020 campaign in embracing the public option, which he thinks will be less objectionable to moderate voters than a single-payer system.
