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Trump, Biden Hold Dueling Rallies in Iowa

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - It's 17 months until the 2020 U.S. presidential election,
   but Tuesday in Iowa might feel like voting is near, with Republican
   President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the leading
   Democrat seeking to oust him, holding rallies in the midwestern farm
   state.

   Trump and Biden, both in their 70s, have spent weeks firing verbal
   taunts at each other from a distance, jabbing at each other's
   character, policies and demeanor. The twin visits appear to be
   coincidental and the candidates will not come within 160 kilometers of
   each other, but the rhetoric will fly across the vast fields in the
   state.

   Trump, who declared he was running for a second four-year term in the
   White House just as he was inaugurated in 2017 for his first, is
   visiting the western side of the state to talk about renewable energy.
   Then he flies to central Des Moines, the state's biggest city with more
   than 200,000 residents, for a dinner and fundraiser with state
   Republicans. Biden is visiting three communities in the eastern part of
   the state, Ottumwa, Mt. Pleasant and Davenport.

   Aides say Trump often worries about Biden's appeal to working class
   voters, fearing that Biden as an opponent in the November 3 election
   next year could cut into Trump's support that helped him defeat
   Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

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