Bernie Sanders embarks on Iowa bus tour
SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- On Tuesday, the day after he rallied thousands in Alabama, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, returned to Iowa to speak to crowds of a more modest size, and do the hard work of turning out Iowans on caucus night.
"In two weeks, the eyes of the world are on Iowa," he said to a group of more than 200 at his first stop in Fort Dodge, where former President Bill Clinton campaigned for his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- and Sanders' opponent for the Democratic nomination -- over the weekend. "You have the opportunity to literally lead this country in a very, very different direction."
In the final sprint to the caucus, Sanders and Clinton have engaged in an steady back and forth over their policy differences. Clinton's attacks have sharpened as Sanders has risen in the polls -- two polls out Tuesday showed him with a wide lead in New Hampshire and closing the gap with Clinton nationally -- and to the fact that the former secretary, as he puts it, no longer seems "inevitable."
And as he made his way west from Des Moines to Sioux City on Tuesday, Sanders emphasized that momentum and his own electability.
"The objective evidence is our campaign is the campaign of excitement, the campaign of energy, the campaign of bringing people into the political process," he said.
Sanders answered questions from Iowans at three of the four stops and, in some instances, the questions put him on defense.
"Could you explain your stance on gun control," one questioner asked, "and if it has changed, why?"
"No, it has not flopped," he said. "I have a lifetime where I have a D-minus voting record from the NRA. Sound like I'm a tool of the NRA?"
He did recently agree to revisit a 2005 bill he supported that shields gun manufacturers and sellers from liability when their products are used in the commission of a crime.
Another person asked about his foreign policy experience. Earlier Tuesday the Clinton campaign, which has also been battling Sanders over his gun record, released a statement from a group of former diplomats and national security officials questioning his "lack of a strategy for defeating ISIS."
"No one can deny that Secretary Clinton has a lot of foreign policy experience," Sanders said, "but experience does not necessarily equate to judgement."
Sanders did not shy away from pointing out where he and Clinton part ways on issues like paid leave and social security and, in Carroll, where 220 people gathered in a room at a winery across the street from a Clinton field office, he knocked Clinton for accepting six-digit speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.
"Goldman Sachs also provides very, very generous speaking fees to some unnamed candidates," Sanders said. "You've got to be really, really, really good to get $225,000 a speech."
Sanders said his campaign has met with more than 40,000 Iowans in town meetings across the state and in the next two weeks he plans to meet with 10,000 more. Halfway through his day, his campaign announced his next trip to the state: a three-day, nine-stop swing that will cover nearly 500 miles across the northeastern part of Iowa. Support for Sanders is strong among young, liberal Iowans, and the trip includes events at several college campuses.
"You're going to see us all over this state," he said in Carroll, motioning outside where his new campaign bus was waiting for him. He added that the bus, wrapped in his blue logo with the words "Feel The Bern" on the back, has comfortable seats.
He told reporters gathered next to the bus in Underwood that his success in Iowa hinges on the number of people who turn out on caucus night.
"We have a great volunteer network," Sanders said. "What you're gonna see the next two weeks here in Iowa, next three weeks in New Hampshire, is a very, very strong effort on the part of our staff and volunteers to be knocking on tens and tens of thousands of doors, making all kinds of phone calls."
More than 15,000 volunteers have completed at least one volunteer shift on behalf of Sanders in Iowa and that number "is growing every day," according to Rania Batrice, an Iowa-based spokesperson for Sanders.
Sanders ended his day in Sioux City, where more than a thousand people gathered to hear him speak. He was joined on stage by his wife Jane, who campaigned separately on his behalf on Tuesday, and two of his grandchildren.
"I hope that at the end of that night," he said of February 1, "what people all across this country will see is the people of Iowa saying yes, we are part of the political revolution."