Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. casts himself as an experienced hand who can appeal to black voters nationwide and win in the Midwest. On the campaign trail, he rarely delivers the same stump speech verbatim — he often goes on tangents and sometimes cuts himself off. But his core themes include rebuking President Trump’s leadership and fighting for the middle class.

Below is a speech he gave as tensions with Iran escalated. The speech focuses more on foreign policy than usual, but it offers a window into his message. It has been excerpted in places for clarity. Mr. Biden appeared with Representative Abby Finkenauer, Democrat of Iowa, who has endorsed him.

I tell you what. Having, having the congresswoman from the First District go out of her way like she has for me has made a great deal of difference to me. It’s one of the most coveted endorsements anybody looks for.

Analysis Abby Finkenauer represents a congressional district that supported President Trump in 2016. Joe Biden has been endorsed by a number of House Democrats who represent competitive districts — and he argues that he is best equipped to help candidates in down-ballot races.

Hey man, how you doing? Good to see you guys. I tell you what, two great friends. Anyway.

Analysis Mr. Biden sometimes interrupts his speech to greet or engage people in the audience.

One of the most coveted endorsements anyone could have in this state. And, and she’s been a great, great help to me and given me a lot of insight about not just the First District, but Iowa as well.

You know we ... we have a similar background. We’re only one or two years apart, you know.

Analysis He appeared to be deadpanning. Ms. Finkenauer is 31; Mr. Biden is 77.

…We used to have a saying, I think we, our grandfathers must have been related, because after 10:30 Mass at St Paul’s in Scranton, everybody’d go back to my grandpop’s house and sit around the kitchen table and argue politics and sports.

Analysis This is a reference to his Catholic, blue-collar roots, starting in his childhood in Scranton, Pa. Ms. Finkenauer also tells stories about post-church family discussions about politics.

And my grandpop was the one who convinced me and taught me, and I learned at his table, that every single, solitary person in the country, any, every person we knew, no one was better than me. But I was no better than anybody else. And the line that I learned from my dad, I'm not joking about this...

… The word most often used — most often-used adjective — was dignity. Everyone, everyone, is entitled to be treated with dignity, no matter where they come from, no matter what their background, what their race, religion or ethnicity.

Analysis Mr. Biden often invokes wisdom from his father, who worked at an auto dealership and imbued in his son lessons about education and treating others with respect.

Folks it is, it’s what Iowa’s about. As I travel, I’ve been to all 99 counties over my career here campaigning, going back, campaigning for John Culver and others in the state over the years.

Analysis John C. Culver, who died in 2018, was a congressman and senator from Iowa who served in the 1960s and 1970s, losing to Chuck Grassley, a Republican who remains in the Senate, in 1980.

And Iowa is about basic, fundamental values. May sound corny but it’s true. Think about it.

[Mr. Biden goes on to say that he has] met personally every major world leader in the last 40 years. They somehow think we’re kind of naïve. We talk about fairness, we talk about decency, we talk about honesty.

Analysis This is a key part of Mr. Biden’s message: He has deep ties to other world leaders, and could restore relationships abroad that have grown strained in the Trump era.

What is it that we’re missing these days? We don’t spend a lot of time connecting to one another. We have a president who goes out of his way to try to divide us based on our race, based on our religion. Based on where we come from. You know, it’s just, to me, it’s something that is, is extremely, extremely worrisome. We found ourselves ... because I’m looking forward to having questions, I’m going to be particularly brief here — but I ran for three reasons when I announced for the United States presidency, for the nomination.

Analysis Audience members, be warned: Going back to his decades as a senator from Delaware, Mr. Biden has never had a reputation for brevity.

Actually, the first reason was to restore the soul of the nation. You know, when you saw, when I saw … I came out of the civil rights movement as a kid, in my state of Delaware, the eighth-largest African-American population in the country. And, and it was segregated when I moved from Scranton when there was no work, my dad had to go to, move to Delaware to find a job.

Analysis Mr. Biden has built deep relationships with black voters and leaders and enjoys broad support among them. But he was elected to the Senate at 29, and his long record on issues like busing and criminal justice has led to scrutiny. He has also occasionally overstated his role in the civil rights movement.

And, you know, it’s amazing. I never thought I’d see the day again when we found ourselves, people coming out of the fields carrying torches in Charlottesville … close your eyes and picture what you saw on television. Their veins, their veins literally bulging, screaming and shouting hate and bile … carrying Nazi flags and making sure that they talked about white supremacy … the Ku Klux Klan.

Analysis Mr. Biden has cited his disgust at the 2017 outbreak of white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Va., as a central part of the reason he is running for president. He suggests Mr. Trump enabled the attitudes on display there.

David Duke, the head of the Klan, said, “This is why we elected him.” A young woman gets killed in the melee, and the president is asked, ‘What do you think of that?’ And his response was a response no president’s ever given. He said there were “very fine people on both sides.” Very fine people on both sides. No one, with the possible exception of Andrew Jackson … ever said anything remotely like that.

And everything has been about dividing us, not uniting us. And so I wrote an article back then for The Atlantic magazine saying we have to restore the soul of America and that includes … expanding the promise of America, to black and brown Americans.

Analysis This is a variation on one of Mr. Biden’s campaign slogans — he often speaks about the need to restore the soul of the nation.

Folks there’s so much, so much we have to correct. But we can.

I said the second reason I was running is to rebuild the middle class because it’s getting clobbered. I know the stock market’s sky high, I get that. But I know the tax cut has helped very few people and helped them a great deal.

Analysis Mr. Biden has been critical of the 2017 tax bill passed by Republicans.

But what's happening? The middle class is getting clobbered. They’re getting clobbered.

The majority of people in the middle class today think their children will never have the same standard of living they had. First time in American history we're no longer, the last hundred years, we're no longer the wealthiest middle class in the world.

We now are in a position where, studies show if a person received, if a middle class family

received an unexpected bill for $400 in one month, they’d have to borrow the money ... to be able to make it. There’s not a whole lot of breathing room, not a whole lot of breathing room.

We have to rebuild and this time bring everybody along.

Whether you’re … handicapped, whether you have a problem, whatever your issue is, everybody’s got to have a chance. Look, Wall Street didn’t build America. The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.

Analysis Mr. Biden often uses this line in a nod to the labor movement, a critical Democratic constituency.

And, as was mentioned by the congresswoman, the third reason I ran is that we have to unite this country. Look, you know, that’s what I’ll do as your presidential nominee if I’m your nominee. Unite the country. Because guess what. We can’t do it any other way. The way our whole system is built … on … a consensus to be reached. We can’t do it, without abusing power, without generating consensus. And we can do that.

Analysis Throughout the campaign, Mr. Biden has insisted on the importance of making overtures to Republicans, an approach some Democrats have criticized because, they say, there are not credible partners on the other side.

If we stop questioning people’s motives, we start to argue with them about the substance of our disagreement.

If I turn around and say, “You’re in the pocket of,” or “you’re unethical,” “or you’re this” and say by the way, “Let’s figure out how to build more roads and airports for transportation and deal with global warming” — fat chance. But if I disagree with you on the substance of what you say, we argue like the devil. We can then reach an agreement, based on what we disagree on, as long as you don’t go after each other in a mean way. I promise you, we can do it, I’ve done it my whole career.

Analysis Mr. Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972 and spent his career focused on legislative deal-making. He strenuously argues that such an approach is still possible even at a moment of hyperpartisanship.

I would be remiss if I didn’t speak just a few minutes, before we go to questions, about Iran.

Analysis His remarks came shortly after a United States drone strike killed a top Iranian military commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.

First, as we go forward, let me make it clear: President Trump has no authority to take us to military conflict with Iran, period.

… Informed consent. Informed consent of the American people ...The bottom line is, any further action against Iran requires congressional authorization, and I support the efforts by Congress to insist and assert their constitutional prerogative.

… He does not have the authority to take us to war, another war in the Middle East and they’ll oppose him if he attempts to do so. The second point I’ll make is, let's not forget how we got here … And I’m not the only one, but I predicted it six months ago, that this president, this president would in fact, when he canceled the nuclear deal which I and others in my, in our, administration helped put together, that was being enforced, remember what he said. He said what we're going to do is we're going to walk away from that commitment. We’re going to act as America first. What did it do? It put us last. It stood up our allies.

Analysis Mr. Biden is referring to the Iran nuclear deal from which Mr. Trump withdrew in 2018. He has made his international experience a centerpiece of his campaign, and here he is saying that Mr. Trump’s policies have left America abandoned on the world stage.

We find ourselves in a position where allies have worked against us. They no longer are prepared to support us because we have walked away and Iran has begun the process of trying to get a nuclear weapon, which there was no possibility of them getting without us knowing well two years in advance, of doing the most intrusive regime ever set forward … It was predictable what would happen, making America first, in his view, put America alone. And so folks, it's not a surprise that this cycle, this cycle of violence began.

And third. Suleimani, who headed up the Quds force, their, their special forces in Iran. He does have American blood on his hands, so don’t mourn his passing.

Analysis Mr. Biden, in contrast to Senator Bernie Sanders, made a point to repeatedly denounce the actions of General Suleimani. Mr. Sanders focused on asserting that the United States had assassinated the Iranian commander, a loaded term that Mr. Biden was more reluctant to invoke.

But the administration has given us no confidence they have any plan or strategy in place, for what to do next. None.

This president said he’s made us safer. Yet they’re ordering the evacuation of American citizens from Iraq and around the entire region.

He said he did this to stop a war. It’s moved us precipitously close to an all-out war. We’re sending a thousand more troops, combat troops into the area. And if, God forbid, war breaks out, we will send … over 100,000 troops. And we’re not talking about a nation of six million people. Forty million people.

Analysis Mr. Biden sometimes misstates facts in his speeches, as he appeared to do here. Iran is a nation of around 80 million people.

You’re a veteran of Vietnam, I want to thank you for your service. And the last thing we need is another war in the Middle East. And folks —

My greatest worry is, does anyone have confidence that Donald Trump has thought through what the next steps are?

Audience No!

Think about it. I know, it almost sounds, you know, I spent my whole life doing national security and foreign policy. As chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and the reason why President Obama picked me, was because my background in national security and foreign policy ...

Analysis Mr. Biden often invokes Barack Obama. Here he is saying that Mr. Obama selected Mr. Biden to serve as his running mate in part because of his deep experience in international affairs after serving as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

You don’t do things this way. There’s no evidence, think what’s happening. Our very NATO allies are chasing both us and Iran, at the same time saying, “Neither one of you should do anything.” They’re our allies. No one’s saying, “If Americans attack, now, we're going to go to its defense.” What's going on here?

Has he thought through the second and third layers what happens? No one should engage in this kind of activity unless they’ve thought through what the next steps are.

… All this just reinforces the stakes of this election in my view. That’s why it’s so important to elect someone who’s already ready on Day One. And immediately, to be commander in chief of our armed forces. And get to work repairing our relationships around the world because our alliances are in jeopardy and therefore our security is in jeopardy. We need to have, provide a steady, stable, experienced leadership. With all due respect, I think I’m best prepared, with all the difficulties we face.

Analysis This has been a central part of his pitch: that in an uncertain and dangerous world, he is uniquely prepared to confront America’s challenges on the global stage — a contrast that he makes, both explicitly and implicitly, with his Democratic rivals.

When I got elected as a 29-year-old kid to the United States Senate, I wasn't even old enough to be sworn in. And I was characterized as a young, idealistic, optimistic young guy. I give you my word as a Biden, I’m more optimistic about America’s chances of leading the world today than I have ever been in my entire career.

Analysis A phrase Mr. Biden and his family often use.

We have the greatest research universities in the world, we have more great research, great research universities here, than all the rest of the world combined. Every major change that could affect this beautiful young woman’s life, comes out of those research universities.

Analysis Apparently another reference to an audience member. Mr. Biden is sensitive to the reception he receives at events — when the crowd’s engaged, he grows more energized, and vice versa.

It doesn’t come from businesses — it’s monetized by businesses, but it comes from the incredible intellectual capital we have. We lead the world by a long shot. We’re the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. And if we invest in our people, we invest in our people, we can maintain our standing in the world, and provide an opportunity for people to succeed and us to be a benefit to the rest of the world at the same time. We have the most productive workers in the world. Workers in the United States are three times as productive as workers in Asia. Fact. Fact.

Analysis Mr. Biden often makes this comparison.

We find ourselves in a position where we are better positioned than any other nation in the world, compared to any other country.

But we are so much better-positioned. China. China doesn’t have enough water to make sure its people have enough to drink. Not a joke. They’re talking about a multibillion-dollar project to turn around rivers, to be able to find water for the people. I’m not happy about that. But they have a problem. They have a million Uighurs who are in concentration camps in the west, Muslims. You see what’s happening in Hong Kong …

Analysis Mr. Biden often argues that the United States is in a stronger position than China.

They’re divided east and west. That’s not a good thing. But the idea that China’s going to overtake the United States of America?

If we invest in our people, we can help, we can help move the world in the right direction, without sending thousands of troops. Folks, we’re the most powerful military in the history of the world. That’s not hyperbole, it’s a fact.

Analysis A favorite “Bidenism” — a colorful phrase the former vice president uses frequently.

That’s not the reason why we lead the world. We lead the world because, not the example of our power but the power of our example.

Let me conclude by saying, this is the United States of America. There has never been a time, never, never, never, and it's not hyperbole, when we’ve set our mind to something we’ve been unable to accomplish it. So it’s time we get up, take back this country and take back the world.

Analysis Some critics of Mr. Biden say his message is overly rooted in nostalgia. This is Mr. Biden’s effort to end on an uplifting, forward-looking message. His voice, as it did here, often rises to a shout as he reaches the crescendo of the speech.

Thank you all.