DAVENPORT, Iowa On the same day President Donald Trump visited central Iowa, former Vice President Joe Biden zoomed through three cities in the eastern part of the state, attempting to portray himself on Tuesday as the moral counterbalance to the Republican president that the country needs come the 2020 election.

This race is as much about character and as much about values as it is about specific issues, he told the media on Tuesday. You all know it.

While Trump toured a renewable energy facility and attended a fundraiser for the states Republican Party in West Des Moines on Tuesday, Biden campaigned across southeastern Iowa, making stops in Ottumwa, Mount Pleasant and Davenport.

Biden implied that the dueling visits were a coincidence.

It wasnt planned that way, he said in Davenport. But I hope Trumps presence here is maybe a clarifying moment for us all.

Biden used Tuesdays events to highlight their differences on specific issues of national importance, like trade, climate change and Bette Midler (He found time to go after Bette Midler, for Gods sake! Biden cracked early in the day). Bidens prepared remarks for his Davenport speech alone mentioned Trump by name 44 times, and he described Trumps comment that there were very fine people on both sides of the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, as a low point for the country.

I believe that Trump poses a fundamental threat to America, Biden said.

Trump and Biden have made jabs at one another something of a regularity recently. The president attacked Biden on the White House lawn Tuesday before heading to Iowa, saying hed rather run against Biden than anybody and calling him the weakest mentally of all the Democratic presidential candidates.

Biden started the day in Ottumwa, which sits in a county that voted for Trump in 2016 after supporting the Obama-Biden ticket in 2008 and 2012. Throughout the day, Biden turned back to the importance of unions, the middle class and the dignity of work, while referring to himself as middle-class Joe.

But he also tried to keep things light to varying degrees of success. The president says I abandoned Scranton, he quipped at one point in the middle of the day. I was 9 years old! But I guess thats how he feels about a lot of the kids coming across the border. Expecting them to say, Mom, leave me behind!

Outside the Davenport event on Tuesday evening, a female attendee who said she supports Trump and who asked to remain anonymous said she was quite surprised that she enjoyed the event.

He could probably do a comedy routine with his deliverance, the woman said. I believe that he and the past president did a lot of things wrong. But he did a good speech, he really did.

Many of the attendees who spoke to HuffPost said they appreciated Bidens experience and empathy. Firefighter Pat Short, 50, said he had met Biden several times in past elections and has already decided hes going to support him in 2020.

I just think hes a very genuine person, Short said while waiting in line for the event in Ottumwa, adding that he appreciated Bidens track record of being able to reach across the aisle during his time in Washington as a senator and vice president.

I think thats been really missing a lot, Short said.

Bidens swing through Iowa came two days after the state Democratic Partys raucous 2019 Hall of Fame celebration in Cedar Rapids, which 19 of his fellow Democratic presidential candidates attended and he skipped. The event took place on the same day as the birthday of Bidens daughter and the graduation of one of his granddaughters. But it was also the second major Democratic event in as many weeks that Biden had opted out of, and his absence frustrated some attendees while providing ammunition to several of his Democratic opponents.

Joe Biden must really not like to travel, candidate Andrew Yang joked Sunday.

Biden tackled the criticism head on Tuesday, saying near the top of his first speech of the day that his priorities were family, family, family. I make no apologies for not showing up and speaking for five minutes since Ive got almost eight months to be able to come and talk to you, he said.