NASHUA – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden stood firm Tuesday in opposing the mandatory single-payer health care plans that competitors Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren promote under the badge of Medicare for All.

During his first New Hampshire campaign event in the aftermath of the chaotic Iowa caucuses, Biden told the crowd assembled in the gym at Nashua’s Girls Inc. that his public option plan to expand Obamacare is a more realistic and affordable endeavor. He said Sanders, specifically, does not acknowledge the monumental task of passing such a massive health care bill through the U.S. House and Senate.

“How’s it going to pass? How’s it going to move? How’s it going to get done?” Biden said. “Try to pass a $30 trillion plan through the Congress.”

Sanders, meanwhile, does not come close to backing up on his signature agenda item.

“I simply do not accept a situation where, in the richest country on Earth, our people are afraid to go to the emergency room when they are hurt or sick because they cannot afford the bill. That’s got to change. We need Medicare for All,” Sanders tweeted on Sunday.

Nevertheless, in other matters at the Tuesday Biden rally, the former vice president addressed issues such as climate change, immigration reform and how to defeat President Donald Trump in the 2020 Electoral College.

Biden also calmly waited out a pair of vocal hecklers during his rally. Though the two men appeared to pose no physical threat to anyone, their boisterousness led to their swift removal by security.

Prior to the rally, Ed Kelly, a high-ranking Boston Fire Department union official who has also occupied union positions on the national level, said Biden has been “championing the causes” of firefighters ever since he was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972.

Noting that “politicians control what (firefighters) get” in terms of equipment, wages and benefits, “we don’t always get what we need to protect you,” Kelly said.

“But we have a champion” in Biden, he said, calling attention to the Safety Officers Benefit program, legislation that Biden spearheaded in 1976 that provides death benefits to the families of fallen firefighters.

Although the Iowa caucus results were not yet known at the time of Biden’s rally, he told the audience he felt “pretty good about getting more than our fair share” of support and is “looking forward to making my case across (New Hampshire) between now and next Tuesday.

“It’s time for New Hampshire to speak, and speak loudly,” Biden added, to cheers.

SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW WITH THE TELEGRAPH

Biden also granted some sit-down interview time with The Telegraph.

“I have never viewed any one of the first four as determinative,” Biden said of the nominating contests staged every four years in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

“Iowa has always been about how you influence New Hampshire. New Hampshire has always been about how neighboring senators influence New Hampshire,” Biden said in a likely reference to Sanders of Vermont and Warren of Massachusetts.

Iowa’s results remained inconclusive late Tuesday, but Biden appeared to be in fourth place, trailing Indiana’s Pete Buttigieg, as well as Sanders and Warren. After New Hampshire votes next week, Nevada is set to caucus on Feb. 22, while South Carolina is scheduled to vote Feb. 29.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen now,” Biden said. “I feel good about where we are here – got a great team up here.”

Biden said former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “$60 billion” fortune makes him a formidable opponent – even if the media mogul skips New Hampshire altogether.

“If I had $60 billion, I might do it too,” Biden said of skipping New Hampshire. “It’s probably a good strategy for him.”

Finally, The Telegraph asked Biden about winning battleground states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – all of which Trump carried in the 2016 Electoral College.

“They’re the same people who voted overwhelmingly for me,” Biden said in reference to voters in these states who supported him during his time as running mate to President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. “That’s why Barack asked me to be on the ticket.”

“I think you get them back by what I’ve always done: Talking to their needs. Their needs are almost all economic and health care,” Biden said of bringing former Democratic voters in the Rust Belt back into the Democratic Party’s fold.