The Iowa caucuses are in just a few days, but despite the growing pressure, Joe Biden doesn’t seem concerned about winning over new supporters.
Biden told an Iowa voter to “go vote for someone else” after the man challenged his environmental policy, the Daily Caller reported Tuesday. It’s the former vice president’s latest hostile encounter with a voter who confronted him with a tough question, and it comes as he and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are neck-and-neck in the Iowa polls, according to NBC News.
Biden to Iowa voter: Don’t vote for me
Biden has frequently snapped at journalists — and sometimes voters — for pressing him on his policy positions and his son’s business dealings in Ukraine. With less than a week to go before the Iowa caucuses, Biden got into another testy exchange Tuesday with Ed Fallon, a former state legislator who grilled the 2020 hopeful on climate change.
“I’m going to support you if you win the nomination because we’ve got to get rid of Trump. What are we going to do about climate change?” Fallon asked, according to Fox News. “Now you say you’re against pipelines but then you want to replace these gas lines… We have got to stop building and replacing pipelines.”
In response, Biden, who is known for being touchy, poked Fallon on the chest and brushed off his question. “No no no… go vote for someone else. You’re not going to vote for me in the primary,” he said.
Fallon told Biden he would vote for him “in the general if you treat me right,” but Biden pushed back.
“Look, you’re asking for a picture of me, coming up and telling me you don’t support me,” the former VP said. “I’m looking for a primary, caucus [vote].”
A man in Iowa asks Joe Biden to stop supporting the building of new pipelines. Joe Biden tells him to go vote for someone else and then starts accusing him of voting for Bernie Sanders. Actually, the man says, he’s voting for Tom Steyer. Very awkward. pic.twitter.com/OOuGiypED8
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) January 28, 2020
“This is no way to treat an Iowan”
Biden also accused Fallon of supporting Sanders, but Fallon said that he is supporting billionaire Tom Steyer in the primary — while insisting that he would vote for Biden if he is nominated. Reacting to the exchange on Twitter, Steyer said that he was disappointed in Biden’s response.
“This is no way to treat an Iowan,” Steyer tweeted Tuesday, according to Fox. “We need immediate action on climate. If you don’t agree, happy to talk [at a] debate. But don’t take it out on voters we need to win in [November].”
Is he even trying?
As McClatchyDC notes, this isn’t the first time Biden has lashed out at voters with tough questions. In November 2019, he told an immigration activist who challenged President Barack Obama’s deportations to vote for Donald Trump.
Biden also attracted scrutiny in December when he challenged an Iowa voter to a push-up contest and an IQ test after the man brought up Hunter Biden’s business in Ukraine, NBC reported. It was just one of many bizarre episodes on the campaign trail that have raised questions about Biden’s mental fitness for office — and his desire to win.
Does Biden even want to be president?
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