Democracy 2020 Digest: Top-tier Democrats make electability case

close

Video

Biden calls President Trump's comments on us troop injuries 'disgusting'

Joe Biden reacts to the president's characterization of traumatic brain injuries suffered in the January eighth Iran missile strike.

With 10 days to go until the Iowa caucuses kick off the presidential nominating calendar, two of the top-tier contenders in the Democratic presidential race are making the case that they’re best equipped to win their party’s nomination and the best candidate to defeat President Trump in November’s general election.

Fox News’ Allie Raffa reports that former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign went up with a new TV commercial on Iowa airwaves that spotlights that Biden’s the safest Democratic choice to remove the GOP incumbent from the White House.

“Every day he is president, Donald Trump poses a threat to America and the world. We have to beat him. Joe Biden is the strongest candidate to do it,” says the narrator in the 30-second ad, as she points to Biden’s lead in national and crucial battleground state polls.

“This is no time to take a risk. We need our strongest candidate. So let’s nominate the Democrat Trump fears the most. Vote Biden. Beat Trump,” the narrator concludes.

While the commercial started running in Iowa, Biden was in New Hampshire, which votes eight days after Iowa and holds the first primary in the White House race.

Promoting his electability – as he’s done since declaring his candidacy last April -- the former vice president told the crowd at an event in Claremont, New Hampshire, that “we have to win in the states that win us back the United States Senate.”

And he pointed to himself as the best of the 2020 Democratic White House hopefuls to help in the down-ballot races.

Biden once again spotlighted what his campaign sees as Trump’s efforts to prevent the former vice president winning the nomination, telling the audience, “Did you ever see a president spend so much time trying to keep someone from being the nominee? I wonder why.”

And he singled out White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, saying that the president’s “spokesperson said that you really should nominate somebody else other than Biden because Biden’s a bad person. Well Kellyanne Conway, I appreciate her being against me.”

Warren knocks 'breathless media narratives'

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was off the campaign trail on Friday – serving as a juror along with her 99 Senate colleagues in the impeachment trial of President Trump. But, as Fox News’ Tara Prindiville reports, Warren’s advisers issued a rare campaign memo to supporters detailing their plan to secure the Democratic nomination.

The memo outlines how Warren can win the nearly 2,000 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

"For the last 13 months we have built and executed our plan to win. We expect this to be a long nomination fight and have built our campaign to sustain well past Super Tuesday and stay resilient no matter what breathless media narratives come when voting begins,” campaign manager Roger Lau explained.

The knocking of “breathless media narratives” appeared to be a way for the Warren campaign to downplay expectations in Iowa. Warren has seen her poll numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as her national numbers, slip the past couple of months.

In the memo, the campaign showcased its boots on the ground, saying they have over 1,000 staffers in 31 states for what they expect will “be a long nomination fight.”

They also highlighted their direct voter contact efforts, noting that they have more than 1,000 field offices across the country.

Biden calls Trump’s minimizing of U.S. troop injuries ‘disgusting’

While in New Hampshire, Biden argued that Trump “brushed off” injuries suffered by U.S. troops in Iraq during an Iranian missile strike. President Trump this week minimized the injuries as “headaches.”

At least 11 U.S. service members were transported to hospitals in Kuwait and Germany earlier this month after the Iranian missile strike on Al-Assad Air Base in Northern Iraq that came in response to the American drone strike ordered by the president that killed Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani. Some of those injured suffered from possible cases of traumatic brain injuries.

The Pentagon now says that number reached 34.

Taking aim at the president, Biden said, “This week he brushed off the injuries sustained by those brave troops who were on the other side of the Iranian bombardment and missile attack in Iraq from Iran. And he said while they were being evaluated for traumatic brain injuries, he said no, they just have headaches.”

And the former vice president emphasized that there are “300,000 estimated people coming home from these wars suffering from post-traumatic stress as a consequence of being exposed to the traumatic brain injuries. And the idea that is taken so lightly I find it, quite frankly, disgusting.”

Sanders: ‘Abortion is health care’

While President Trump was making history Friday as the first sitting president to attend the annual anti-abortion March for Life rally in the nation’s capital, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont took to Twitter to express his position on abortion.

In a tweet Friday afternoon, the top-tier contender for the Democratic presidential nomination wrote, “Abortion is health care.”

The president touted during his comments that “unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House.”