Trump and Biden tackle the same theme: Why are you so obsessed with me?

Yet for the two men – who brushed against each other Tuesday in Iowa but have never met each other – the reasons for the obsession are numerous and obvious.

Trump has named Biden as the most formidable threat to blue-collar voters who propelled him to the White House in 2016 – and polls (both public and internal) showed that Trump was lagging behind in the polls. former vice president in states that were center his victory.

This is in addition to Trump's persistent fixation with his predecessor, President Barack Obama, and in connection with this administration represented by Biden.

Meanwhile, Biden based his entire campaign on the need to defeat the president. Unlike some of his Democratic rivals – who were left on the sidelines Tuesday as the central ring contestants quarreled – Biden decided to focus on Trump, even though he speaks with coolness about not being resulted in a draw.

A concern for the outgoing president has given his campaign a general electoral sensitivity, all in the image of the leader he is eager to keep.

Hit for one

With these motivations in mind, everyone tore each other Tuesday. In their first attacks in an early-voting country, a potentially distant picture of general elections, marked by personal insults, open hostility – and striking attacks by their similarity.

During three events in the eastern part of the state, Biden called the president an "existential threat" to the country, questioning his political intelligence and putting him out of the fights of American workers.

"I do not think the president really understands the basics," Biden said during a speech in Davenport at night, which was so heavily insulted by Trump that his campaign sought to program the entire day around this day, by publishing a text written at 6 o'clock in the morning.

Lampooning Trump's unique statement that "I am the only one who can solve" the country's problems, Biden mocked: "Fix yourself, Donald Trump."

He decided to delete a line of prepared text stating that Target cashiers "know more about the economy than Trump".

The president also criticized Biden's intelligence, albeit much more blatantly.

"Joe Biden is a dummy," he said on White House South Lawn before leaving for Iowa, adding, "It looks different than it was, he's different from what he was, he's even slower than he was before, so I do not know. "

Trump, of course, is no stranger to the claims of mental decline; he was so eager to refute the senility claims that he asked his doctor to do a mental test and publish the results publicly in 2017. Like many of Trump's insults, the Accusation did not involve much detail.

Distractions and politics

When asked about the charges later in the day, Biden was not inclined to ignore them. Instead, he turned the insult into a fight of lucidity.

"Look at him and look at me and answer the question," said Biden. "It goes without saying, you know it's a ridiculous assertion from him."

"All I can say is look at me," he said. "Just look at me."

While the Democrats were largely critical of the group's leader – and his strategy against Biden is still at the center of his concerns – Trump sought to fill the void using information from his last campaign.

"He takes a position in Iowa once every two weeks and then mentions my name 74 times in a speech," he said during his visit to the ethanol plant, which was apparently a formal commitment funded by the taxpayers, but which nevertheless involved several political moves. .

"It reminds me of Crooked Hillary," he added. "She did the same thing, and when it came time to vote, they all said," You know, she does not like Trump a lot, but what else does she represent? "The same thing is going on with Sleepy Joe."