It’s no secret President Joe Biden is unpopular in Iowa.
He came in fourth during the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses. And he lost the state by 8 percentage points to former President Donald Trump during the general election. His approval numbers here are dismal.
And now, according to some reports, even the birds in Hawkeye State have expressed their disappointment. A video of something falling on Biden’s lapel at an Iowa ethanol plant Tuesday was widely characterized on the internet as bird poop.
But it wasn’t a “feathered fiend” relieving itself as characterized by the Daily Mail, a British tabloid. While there were birds in the “giant barn” where Biden spoke, according to a Des Moines Register photographer who was in the event in Menlo, Iowa, the substance that stained Biden’s jacket was in fact distillers grain.
Ethanol gas expands:President Joe Biden in Iowa OKs more ethanol use to cut gas prices, pitches plan to improve rural America
Distillers grain is “a co-product of the ethanol production process,” according to the Iowa Iowa Corn Growers Association. The grain was piled 20 feet high at the site of Biden’s speech.
Biden announced he was directing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use an emergency waiver to allow sale of gasoline with 15% ethanol, called E15, to help boost fuel supplies over the summer.
Biden and ethanol supporters say this will help lower gas prices, which have reached record highs.
