ELECTION/JOE BIDEN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. repeatedly ripped into each other on Tuesday [6-11-19] as unfit to lead the country as they both traveled to the battleground state of Iowa, giving voters a preview of what a general election matchup between the two men might look like. In the most ferocious day of attacks in the six-month-old presidential campaign, Mr. Trump resorted to taunts and name-calling over several hours, saying Mr. Biden was ‘a loser,’ ‘a sleepy guy’ and ‘the weakest mentally,’ and claiming that ‘people don’t respect him.’ Mr. Biden took a different tack, laying out ways Mr. Trump was ‘an existential threat’ to the country, its international standing and its values. Mr. Biden, who leads in early polls for the Democratic presidential nomination, also brought up subjects he had previously avoided with reporters, such as Mr. Trump siding with the North Korean state media’s insults on Mr. Biden’s I.Q…The hostile exchanges, which went back and forth across multiple Iowa campaign stops, were the clearest evidence yet that the two men see political advantages in waging a battle against one another at this early stage of the race.”
–Katie Glueck and Annie Karni, “Trump and Biden Get Personal in Iowa Skirmish,” The New York Times online, June 11, 2019