'Wrecking crew' in the White House: On Iowa tour, Kerry attacks Trump's foreign diplomacy

What most would call the Trump administration, former secretary of state John Kerry describes as the “wrecking crew.”

“The best part about being here is we are three weeks away from beginning the process where we eject this wrecking crew from the White House,” Kerry told a crowd in Iowa City Friday night.

The former secretary of state stopped at former vice president Joe Biden's presidential campaign field office as part of a week-long tour in support of his long-time colleague. Kerry served in the U.S. Senate with Biden, and the two worked together in the Obama administration.

Just before a winter storm rolled through eastern Iowa, Kerry set to work defending his record, and by extension Biden’s record, during Barack Obama’s presidency.

Kerry told Iowans the Trump administration is recklessly undoing important deals he secured as secretary of state — the Paris Agreement and the nuclear deal with Iran — and in doing so putting Americans in danger.

He attributed the unrest in the Middle East this month to President Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Iranian deal, which entailed the U.S. lifting sanctions on Iran in exchange for Iran’s promise to transition its nuclear weapon program to commercial use for a decade.

In response to attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Trump ordered the drone attack that killed Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 2. In response to the general’s death, Iranian leaders launched a missile attack on bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops. No troops were killed, according to U.S. officials.

“What you saw in the last few days, folks, with Iran did not have to happen and only happened because this president, without any rationale except his disdain for everything Obama, decided to unilaterally pull out of the agreement and send a message to Iranians — the Iranians who had been reluctant to come to the table; the Iranians who said you cannot trust America,” Kerry said.

The former secretary of state accused the sitting president of lying about his motivations for initiating steps to remove the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.

"He said the Paris Agreement, we must get out of it, because it puts an undue burden on the United States of America,” Kerry said. “My friends that’s just a lie. It doesn’t put any burden on the United States. Why? Because we wrote the plan ourselves. Nobody else is telling us what to do. The whole meaning of Paris was every country wrote its own plan."

Around three dozen Iowans attended the speaking event. Kerry will continue his tour through the weekend and end it in Marshalltown on Monday.

Standing in the back of the room, Tania Tapia, a senior at the University of Iowa, said she has not yet decided who she will support during the caucuses, but she's narrowed down her list to Biden, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.

"They're more moderate — well, Warren's not," she said. "Biden and Klobuchar are my top two."

Others like Iowa City-based attorney Natalie Cronk entered the field office planning to caucus for Biden. Cronk caucused for Kerry when he ran for president in 2004. That year Kerry won the Iowa caucuses, and garnered 35% of the democratic votes in Johnson County.

Cronk recalls admiring Kerry's military experience, his foreign policy stances and this sense of principles.

This time round she likes many of the candidates running for president, but says what convinced her to support Biden were news reports of the ongoing conflict in Iran.

Cronk quips that she wished Biden would get rid of the college debt she is still paying off 19 years later, but ultimately, she said, she wants a president who will "re-establish America's standing in the world and the dignity of the office of the presidency."

"I'm a liberal on a lot of issues, but having a president who represents your values is really important, not only nationally but globally," Cronk said. “And our president does not. I think Joe Biden most will embody the best that we are instead of pandering to the base common denominator."