Rep. Dave Loebsack visits with constituents in Washington

WASHINGTON - Locals were given a chance to visit with Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Sioux City) Saturday as he stopped by the Washington Hy-Vee for his annual coffee with your congressman tour.

Loebsack announced last April he will be retiring at the end of his term after representing Iowa for 14 years, according to a news release from his office. On Saturday, Loebsack sat in a booth with a coffee and chocolate doughnut to meet with individuals in the community and hear any concerns they may have in the future.

'I like the fact that you can have a smaller, more intimate group,” he said. 'We get a number of people sometimes but in any case I just go around and ask people what's on their minds. Even on my way out I still think it's important for me to do that because I can still vote and I think it's important that I do what I can to represent the people.”

Despite announcing his retirement, Loebsack said his schedule has not lightened up and instead is seeing more people asking for meetings while he is in DC. Back on his home turf in Iowa, he said he is just looking to hear what issues his constituents are seeing and listening to what they have to say.

'I just ask what's on their mind and what they're most worried about. I think a lot if it right now is the election and the ugliness and instability of politics in America,” he said. 'They're worried about if people can come together and get things solved which is why I try to get along with as many people on the other side of the aisle as I can.”

In regard to recent news, Loebsack addressed President Donald Trump's claim that the coronavirus was a 'hoax,” as the president was heard as saying during a rally in South Carolina last Friday. Despite the president's claims, the coronavirus could be a very serious outbreak, he said.

'It's amazing to me that the president of the United States would say at a rally that somehow this is a democratic hoax, yet his own people are saying ‘no this has the potential to be a pandemic.' So I'm not really sure why the president is saying the things he's saying. We should not alarm people ... because that can create all kinds of problems in our society, economic and otherwise but we should not deny this fear and that it has the potential to be much bigger,” he said.

Loebsack said he felt it was his responsibility as a congressman to keep the public informed and especially public health officials so accurate information can be delivered to the public. On Friday, Feb. 28, Donald Trump junior was interviewed by Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends and claimed democrats were using the coronavirus as a way create bad publicity for the president saying, ' ... for them to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here, and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump's streak of winning, is a new level of sickness.”

Loebsack addressed the statement calling it 'beyond outrageous” and said no matter what party a person belongs to the focus needs to be on solving the problem.

'We just have to make sure we're focused on the problem and doing the right things. I wish Vice President Mike Pence all the luck in the world but we're going to need a coordinated effort, there's no doubt about it. Not just at the federal level but at the state level as well,” he said.