Joe Biden is not in the room for the Iowa Democratic Party's blockbuster fundraiser where 19 of his party's presidential candidates are scheduled to speak. But he's present in veiled references by some of his rivals.
Chief among them is Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said the "same old politics will not" defeat President Donald Trump.
In his speech, Sanders made a thinly veiled reference to Biden as a "well-intentioned" candidate who thinks "the best way forward is a middle-ground strategy that antagonizes no one, that stands up to nobody and that changes nothing."
Sanders called this a "failed political strategy" that could lead to the reelection of Trump.
Similarly, California Rep. Eric Swalwell and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker were among those to describe abortion as a right to be protected.
Last week, Biden's campaign first affirmed his support for a decades-old policy that bars federal funding for abortions, only to reverse course.
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