2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden survived the second round of Democratic debates last week simply due to the fact that no one landed a knockout punch against him. The week after, however, has been a much different story.
He’s had a series of gaffes over the last several days that have some in the Democratic party wondering if these are just innocent missteps or something more concerning.
We’ll start with the one that is getting the most attention. The Des Moines Register reports:
Speaking in Iowa on Thursday night, former Vice President Joe Biden said “poor kids” are “just as talented as white kids,” before correcting himself.Biden was addressing the Iowa Asian and Latino Coalition, which has been meeting with Democratic presidential candidates as it prepares to make an endorsement next week.Speaking about his education plan, which would triple federal investment in lower-income school districts, Biden said the country should challenge students and increase the number of advanced placement programs in those schools.”We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids,” Biden said, before adding: “Wealthy kids. Black kids. Asian kids. No, I really mean it. But think how we think about it.””They can do anything anybody else can do, given a shot,” Biden added.
Watch video of Biden’s remarks below:
Biden’s comments were similar to controversial ones he made in 2007 on the same issue.
The Biden campaign issued a statement after his Iowa speech Thursday, suggesting that the Democratic frontrunner “misspoke:”
Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, said in a statement that the former vice president “misspoke and immediately corrected himself during a refrain he often uses to make the point that all children deserve a fair shot, and children born into lower-income circumstances are just as smart as those born to wealthy parents.”
If that’s the case, perhaps Biden’s deputy campaign manager should be the one delivering his speeches going forward, because that is not at all what Biden’s comments sounded like.
When asked about Biden’s “poor kids” gaffe, Trump told reporters that Biden was “not playing with a full deck.”
During that same speech, Biden also mixed up the names of former British Prime Minister Theresa May and the late former PM Margaret Thatcher, the second time this year he has done so. He did this while lying about President Trump’s “very fine people” statement about the Charlottesville riots:
“Words that stunned the nation, and I would argue – I know – shocked the world. International leaders spoke about it,” Biden said, referring to Trump’s Charlottesville comments.”You had people like Margaret Tha… excuse me,” Biden said, catching himself. “You had people like the former chairman and the leader of the party in Germany. You had Angela Merkel stand up and say how terrible it was. International leaders looked at us like, ‘what in God’s name is happening to the United States of America?'”
Watch:
He also mixed May and Thatcher up during a fundraiser he did back in May.
Another Biden gaffe came from an appearance he made in Iowa Thursday at the state fair:
“There is nothing we’ve ever decided to do we’ve been unable to do. Period. That’s not hyperbole. We have never, never, never failed when we’re together. And ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to get up. Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. Even his supporters know who he is. We got to let him know who we are. We choose unity over division. We choose science over fiction,” he said.“We choose truth over facts,” Biden concluded — not seeming to realize facts support the truth, generally speaking.
On Sunday night, Biden misstated the locations of the two mass shootings that took place over the weekend:
Former Vice President Joe Biden misstated the sites of this weekend’s mass shootings during a Sunday fundraiser near San Diego before correcting himself later in his remarks, according to a pool report from the event.The 2020 presidential hopeful was speaking at the home of businessman Mark Arabo when he referred to “the tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before” before correcting himself, noting the shootings took place in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
Also on Thursday, Biden was challenged for the first time about his repeated falsehoods about what President Trump said about the Charlottesville protesters. He continued to lie about it:
As a reminder, in addition to Republicans and conservatives having soundly debunked Biden’s falsehoods about Trump and Charlottesville, back in April even CNN’s Jake Tapper admitted Trump’s remarks had been taken out of context:
In addition to all of this, the left-wing FactCheck.org on Thursday finally called out a Biden falsehood about Trump’s past comments on MS-13, noting that Obama’s former veep had taken Trump’s statements about the notorious gangs “out of context.” That was a charitable way of saying Biden has just flat out lied.
Tapper noted today that Democrats were starting to “express doubts” about Biden:
What could that “something else” be? Perhaps Trump is on to something.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter.–
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