Fresh from last week’s announcement of his candidacy for president, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet made a swing through Iowa, introducing himself to voters.

At a house party on Sunday in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny, the Coloradan made reference to the prostate-cancer diagnosis that delayed his entry into the race.

“It’s hard to believe that three weeks ago today, is that right three weeks ago today? Three weeks ago today I was being operated on,” Bennet said, per a WHO-TV report.

WATCH video below.

He emphasized his support for universal health care and his bipartisan approach to about 50 attendees.

And he also commented on the fact that both he and his one-time boss, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, are in the 2020 race:

“We’re great friends. We always have been great friends. I’m glad he’s running. He was a great governor, a great mayor, and I think he will be a great presidential candidate,” Bennet said, per WHO. ” … We have different approaches to the work, different points of view, and a very different experience. I think it’s going to be fun to have both of us in the field.”

In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Bennet tried to distinguish himself as someone “who’s going to level with the American people about why our system doesn’t seem to work for them.”

He said that his time in Washington has helped him know how to get things done and what needs fixing.

Bennet said it’s “a disgrace that we lost” to Donald Trump in 2016, adding that Democrats must find an approach to deny him a second term.

Bennet said it seems “fairly clear” from special counsel Robert Mueller’s report that Trump “committed impeachable offenses,” but for now the senator favored continued congressional investigations.

He said he thinks Attorney General William Barr should resign and that Barr “has behaved like Trump’s criminal defense lawyer” rather than the nation’s attorney general.

Both Bennet and Hickenlooper have been well back in the pack in early polling.

“It’s entirely possible that Bennet’s bid is more of a play for the vice presidency, or simply an attempt to bring more attention to issues that are important to him, such as government dysfunction and money in politics,” Geoffrey Skelley opines at politics website FiveThirtyEight.

The Associated Press and Mark Harden of Colorado Politics contributed.

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