At Iowa Corn Feed, O’Malley says debates will help Clinton pull away

DES MOINES - Hillary Clinton will use the upcoming presidential debates to put some distance between herself and Donald Trump, former primary opponent turned campaign surrogate Martin O'Malley said Sunday.

Delivering the keynote address at the second annual Progress Iowa Corn Feed on Sunday at the Simon Estes Amphitheater, O'Malley, the former Democratic governor of Maryland who ran for president through the Iowa caucuses, said Clinton's debate experience will help her build an advantage over Trump in Iowa, where multiple polls have showed a very close race.

'My sense is that the (presidential) race is fairly close here (in Iowa), and these next 72 days are going to be pretty determinative,” O'Malley told reporters at the Corn Feed. 'I've been in many debates with Hillary Clinton, and I can tell you, unfortunately for my own prospects, she doesn't usually make mistakes in debates.

'She's a very able debater, and she's going to be able finally, in a one-on-one sort of context, to lay out a much better vision for our country, economically, politically, (and) America's role in the world. And I think she'll start opening up some distance.”

The first presidential debate is just less than a month away: Sept. 28 in Hempstead, N.Y. The other debates are Oct. 9 in St. Louis and Oct. 19 in Las Vegas.

Clinton has enjoyed strong, steady leads in polling in many of the states that have been closely contested in recent elections such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

But the race in Iowa, another recent perennial toss-up, has remained close in the polls.

O'Malley was asked Sunday why he thinks Clinton has been able to pull away from Trump in other battleground states but not in Iowa.

'I'm not exactly sure, but it's my sense that people in Iowa like to make up their minds toward the end of the process, not at the beginning of it,” O'Malley said. 'They're very savvy. The caucuses make Iowa voters very savvy. That means that Iowa people like to see the race play out before they make up their minds.”

When more Iowans start tuning into the presidential race, O'Malley said he thinks those voters will be drawn to Clinton.

'When Hillary Clinton speaks to wages, to the issues like affordable college that matter around people's kitchen table, I believe that she's going to start pulling away here in Iowa,” O'Malley said. 'And that's what I'm going to do everything in my power to help her do.”

During his remarks, O'Malley unleashed criticisms of Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as well as Trump.

'It's time to put this racist bully (Trump) in his place and a tough woman in hers: the White House,” O'Malley said.

Iowa's lone Democrat in Congress, U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, and the party's 2016 congressional candidates and statehouse leaders also spoke at the Corn Feed, as did Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily's List, a national group that works to get Democratic women elected to office.

Schriock said she is excited to have a chance to help elect the first female president in the nation's history, noting her 96-year-old grandmother who lives in Mason City was born just before women in the U.S. had the right to vote.

'My grandmother is going to see that moment,” Schriock said. 'And as proud as she was to see us make history in 2008 (by electing Barack Obama, the first black president), we are ready to do it again this year.”