Biden: Trump’s July 4th spectacle ‘misses the point’

Associated Press

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa

Former Vice President Joe Biden says President Donald Trump’s Fourth of July spectacle in Washington “misses the point.”

Biden was speaking to a few hundred supporters in working-class Marshalltown, Iowa.

The Democratic presidential candidate says, “I wonder what Donald Trump will say this evening, when he speaks to the nation at an event designed more to stroke his ego than celebrate American ideals.”

Earlier, the 76-year-old Biden, in well-worn running shoes, zigzagged across a parade route in Independence, Iowa, often jogging from curb to curb, sometimes trotting backward.

Candidates collided Thursday at the Iowa Cubs ballpark in Des Moines when Biden and his wife ran into former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and his family.

Biden walked into the park as the O’Rourkes watched the end of a naturalization ceremony happening on the field, and went to introduce himself and his wife.

The two Democratic presidential candidates chatted pleasantly about baseball before turning to the field to watch a recorded address delivered by Trump to the stadium.

They then stood side by side and greeted the newly naturalized citizens as they came off the field.

O’Rourke and Biden both marched in a parade in Independence, Iowa, on Thursday morning.