By THOMAS BEAUMONT, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) - President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden repeatedly laid into each other while traveling in the battleground state of Iowa.

They unleashed verbal attacks that at times felt more appropriate for the final weeks before Election Day than a lazy summer about 17 months before voters go to the polls.

Biden still has to overcome more than 20 of his fellow Democrats to secure his party's presidential nomination. But he's climbed to the top of the early polls.

Biden called Trump an "existential threat" to the nation and suggested he's deliberately exceeding the powers of the White House.

Trump quickly hit back on Tuesday, suggesting Biden was "weak mentally" and insisting, "People don't respect him."