US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s many embarrassing gaffes over recent days are prompting questions about his supporters about whether he can rise to the challenge of defeating President Donald Trump in 2020. RNA - Biden, who is no stranger to slip-ups, stole the headlines three times in the past week for all the wrong reasons.
The biggest gaffe came over the weekend when he mistakenly said he was vice president during the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people.
“Those kids in Parkland came to see me when I was vice president,” he told reporters while campaigning in Iowa, seemingly forgetting that his tenure as VP came to an end when former President Barack Obama left the White House in January 2017.
Just two days earlier the 76-year-old former vice president told his Asian and Hispanic supporters that “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”
In an attempt to contain the damage, Biden told reporters later on that he meant to say “wealthy kids” but botched the comments he had delivered quite a few times on the campaign.
“On the spot, I explained it,” he said. “At that very second, I explained it. And so the fact of the matter is that I don't think anybody thinks that I meant anything other than what I meant.”
Earlier that day, Biden told another event in Iowa that just like “We choose science over fiction, we choose truth over facts.”
The Hill wrote that Biden’s many gaffes undermined his claims that he is the most electable among a crowded pool of candidates competing in the primary stage.
While for now Biden remains the clear front-runner, experts are warning that his tendency to make damaging blunders would eventually cause the lead to fade away.
“The substance of individual gaffes may be negligible but they’re a proxy for his political endurance, which some feel is waning, particularly as Warren is creeping up in the polls,” Democratic strategist Basil Smikle, the former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, was quoted as saying by The Hill.
According to Press TV, the gaffes only worsen Biden’s dilemma, as he is already struggling to convince Democrats about his age and his career achievements besides being Obama’s VP for two terms.
The slip-ups are also providing Trump with ammunition to attack Democrats even more.
Taking a swipe at Biden, Trump said last week that his potential rival wasn’t playing with a “full deck.”
The Republican head of state continued the attacks on Twitter over the weekend, writing: “Does anybody really believe he is mentally fit to be president? We are ‘playing’ in a very big and complicated world. Joe doesn’t have a clue.”
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