The only solution, Biden told reporters at a Labor Day event in Cedar Rapids, is to defeat Republicans in the elections 15 months away — “flat-out beat them,” as he put it.
Biden, the Democratic front-runner, has made bipartisanship a theme of his campaign and talked about working with Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell. But Biden took the unequivocal stand on expanded background checks and other measures when asked if there was room to reach a compromise with McConnell, the Senate majority leader.
“None, none on this. I think this is no compromise. This is one we have to just push and push and push and push and push,” he said. “The fact of the matter is, I think this is going to end with some of them defeated.”
Biden was among several Democratic presidential candidates who demanded over the Labor Day weekend that congressional Republicans enact new background check legislation when Congress returns to work next week.
At a town hall-style meeting Sunday in Raymond, New Hampshire, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont bemoaned the “dysfunctionality of Congress” on gun control measures. And Monday, several candidates took unbending stands on background checks while talking to reporters across Iowa and New Hampshire, as they sought out voters and news media cameras for the start of the fall campaign season.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, who was also campaigning in Cedar Rapids on Monday, said background checks were already “a very middle of the road, rather conservative compromise” and signaled that Democrats needed to stand firm on proposals for background checks, which are expected to be part of a gun control debate in Washington after the mass shootings in El Paso, Midland, and Odessa, Texas; and in Dayton, Ohio.
“We’ve got to get out of a defensive crouch,” Buttigieg said of Democrats. “The overwhelming majority of the American people are with us, and the congressional GOP can only reject the American people’s desires for so long before they’re going to pay a political penalty for that.
“We’ve got to get something real out of this,” he said.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who, like Biden and Buttigieg, holds a mix of progressive and moderate views, said background checks were “the minimum that we should do.”
“Then we should go to something that will make the biggest difference for the mass shootings,” she said, such as a new assault weapons ban.
With their remarks, the Democrats were seeking to add more pressure to President Donald Trump, who indicated openness to background checks after the El Paso and Dayton shootings, and McConnell, who has promised a Senate debate this fall. The Democratic-led House has already passed background check legislation this year, but the National Rifle Association has pressured Trump and other Republican leaders to back off new steps on background checks.
For the most part over the holiday long weekend, the Democratic candidates struck upbeat notes at events as they exchanged hearty handshakes and nice-to-meetchas and dropped by picnics and ice cream socials in Iowa and New Hampshire.
There was relatively little sniping among the candidates. At his three events Sunday, Sanders did not once mention his two top rivals, Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, or any of his other competitors. The weekend had more of a laid-back feel: In Raymond, Sanders was joined by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, who joked that a Sanders administration would guarantee “a pint in every freezer and a sundae in every bowl.”
The 2020 Democratic nomination remains very much up for grabs heading into Labor Day week, which traditionally marks the start of a fall campaign season when presidential primary fields winnow and more voters start picking favorites.
“These candidates have been going to the fairs and other events with ready-made crowds,” said Bret Nilles, an Iowa Democrat who leads the party in the Cedar Rapids area, after introducing Bennet at an event Sunday. “Now it’s going to be up to them to see how big a crowd they can draw on their own.”
As the Democratic field stands now, 20 Democrats are still running, but only 10 of them are in strong enough shape to qualify for the next debate, on Sept. 12.
Of that group, just three candidates — Biden, Sanders and Warren — have consistently been in the double digits in recent polls. A fourth, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, has dipped in some polls but has shown an ability to achieve breakout moments, as in her June debate performance, and remains a broadly appealing campaigner. Buttigieg and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey are building out ground forces in Iowa, which votes first Feb. 3, and Klobuchar is also making a push in that state.
At the same time, the field’s shape at summer’s end looks not unlike it did at spring’s end. Biden entered the presidential race in late April as the Democratic front-runner; he remains in that position, having withstood summer challenges from second- and third-tier contenders.
But Biden has yet to come under sustained attacks from his closest competitors at this point, Warren and Sanders, who have large numbers of deeply enthusiastic supporters.
In Portland, Maine, on Sunday night, Sanders drew cheers and shouts from hundreds of supporters and admirers like Frank Medrano, whose voice echoed off the walls of the State Theater in the exact cadence of an “amen” or “preach it” called out in a church.
“I am here tonight, obviously, to ask for your very important support,” Sanders said.
“You’ve got it!” Medrano bellowed.
“We are going to take on the power structure of the United States of America,” Sanders said.
“Bring it!”
And, in a moment that made Sanders’ mouth twitch in what might have been a smile: “We love you, Bernie!”
Medrano, 61, a retired actor living in Peaks Island, Maine, seemed to be buzzing with adrenaline in an interview after Sanders’ rally. Although he said he liked some of Warren’s policies and admired her for setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he described Sanders as the only candidate in the race who was truly “beholden to the people.”
“I think to elect anyone else is a foolish venture,” he said.
How Sanders, Biden and Warren compete and contrast themselves with one another is one of the biggest questions of the autumn phase of the campaign. That minicontest among the leading candidates will also reveal whether there is enough oxygen for any of the 17 other hopefuls to catch fire in the five months before the Iowa caucuses.
Biden’s summer has hardly been a smooth ride. Booker and Harris attacked his record on race. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York did so on gender issues before dropping out last week. Buttigieg, who is 37 years old, has built his campaign on an unsubtle age contrast with Biden, who is 76.
Yet more than four months after he opened his campaign, Biden remains the leader. Few of the Democratic county leaders and party activists who populate Iowa’s political class say they are thrilled with the former vice president, and many say there’s little enthusiasm for his candidacy, yet he remains atop almost all polls of Democrats, in Iowa and elsewhere.
Still, a belief that Biden’s campaign will crater permeates the other presidential campaigns. Eventually, officials with rival campaigns say in private conversations, voters will find Biden an unsteady hand, his gaffes too risky in a contest with President Donald Trump.
None of that has happened yet.
In two weeks, the top three candidates will appear on a debate stage for the first time when the top 10 Democrats gather in Houston. ABC’s moderators are certain to draw contrasts between Biden and Warren, who have clashed on economic issues across the past three decades. Sanders, though ideologically more similar to Warren, shares a base of lower-educated and lower-information voters in the Democratic contest with Biden.
Amid this top-three dynamic, all of the Democratic presidential candidates will find themselves facing new competition for voters’ attention.
Gone are the state and county fairs, with hordes of would-be voters awaiting candidate speeches from soap boxes.
Instead, savvy campaigns are carefully bracketing the Sept. 12 debate with voter-rich events. Most candidates will speak this Saturday at the New Hampshire Democratic Party convention, which will be a magnet for party activists and organizers. Then, after the debate, some candidates are bound to be scheduling their weekend Iowa stops around the schedules of the University of Iowa and Iowa State University football teams. Expect to see a few candidates tailgating at the annual Hawkeye-Cyclone game Sept. 14 in Ames.
This article originally appeared in
.