The campaign trail brought former Vice President Joe Biden to southeast Iowa over the weekend. As he seeks the Democratic nomination for president, Biden met with a crowd of about 150 at Washington High School Saturday afternoon. He began with a speech discussing the character of Americans and saying that those in rural areas are the “backbone of the country.”

Biden took questions from the audience, an eight-year-old boy named Hunter was one of those to ask a question about the situation at the southern border, “So what are you going to do about how kids are being taken away from their parents? What are you going to do about that?” The former Vice President answered, “I think you were talking about the kids who are, their mommies or daddies, mommy or daddy might not be here legally and they get taken away or mommy or daddy gets taken away. That’s going to stop. The only people who are going to be in that position when I’m president of the United States are going to people who have committed a crime, a felony, a serious crime. I’m not going to focus on people who have not committed a crime. I’m going to focus the limited resources we have on those. And I’m going to protect the border by using science, high technology. And you know what I’m talking about. We have the ability with tractor-trailers coming across, and 90% of the drugs and terrorists coming across the border come through legal ports of entry. That’s how they come. They don’t come through a wall, around a wall. And we have the ability to spend a lot less money but put high technology in. We could essentially, to use the jargon, x-ray a tractor-trailer and tell you everything inside that tractor-trailer, whether people are hidden being brought across by a trafficker or drugs or whatever. It costs a lot of money, but it costs significantly less than building a wall sea to shining sea.”

Other topics discussed were the supreme court, impeachment, agriculture and health care. Biden explained that if elected, he’d work for a public healthcare option where people could keep their current plans or choose a public option. He also was asked about agriculture, and he said he’d bolster programs to help farmers while capturing more carbon, as well as addressing tariffs.

Following the stop in Washington, Biden campaigned in Fairfield. The Iowa caucuses are less than 35 days away.