Biden Flips Again: 'We Need to Get Tough With China'

Just days after a stunning flip on federal abortion funding, former Vice President Joe Biden is now pulling a 180-degree turn on his past claim China is "not competition for us."

Biden, in an effort to maintain his large lead over Democratic presidential primary candidates, is going to tell Iowa exactly the opposite, according to a CNN transcript of his prepared remarks Tuesday.

"We are in a competition with China," Biden is prepared to tell an Iowa rally. "We need to get tough with China.

"They are a serious challenge to us, and in some areas a real threat."

The comments are ostensibly damage control for his base that might have wavered amid his alleged ties to China with son Hunter Biden. Biden's Iowa speech honed in on his past controversial comments denouncing China as "not competition for us."

"And let me take one additional moment to talk about this — because it's important, and I don't want anyone to misunderstand what I mean," Biden said before his 180-degree turn.

While Biden holds a commanding double-digit lead in national polling (33.4%, which is 16.4 percentage points on No. 2, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., according to RealClearPolitics, the 23-candidate Democratic field is far closer in Iowa, where Biden leads Sen. Sanders, by a mere 5 percentage points (23.8% to 18.8%).

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