Two days ago, former US vice president Joe Biden was the leading Democratic candidate in terms of the national polling average and weekly news coverage, according to the New York Times.
But, the veteran Democratic could threaten his chances if he continues his history of making gaffes on the campaign trail. Speaking at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, Biden spoke about the need for advanced placement programs (courses that prepare high school students for colleges), saying:
“We should challenge students in these schools and have advanced placement programs in these schools.” The former vice president then added, “We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids.”
The implication — that poor kids are implicitly not white kids — was not lost on Biden, who quickly tried to clarify his point. “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids — no I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”
The comments were met with a storm of scorn on Twitter, with many calling Biden out for implicit racism. The perception shift could be worrying for a candidate who, according to a Fox News poll in July, had a 20-point lead over other candidates amongst African-American voters.
This was not Biden’s only gaffe in his campaign, nor was it the only one he delivered that day in Iowa. In an attempt to combat the problem of fake news, Biden presented a soundbite that was quickly picked up on by his Republican opponents.
“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. We choose truth over facts.”
Joe Biden just said, “We believe in facts, not truth.” 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!
The last line was picked up by Trump, who tweeted about it hours later.
Joe Biden's history of gaffes
If George W. Bush had his ‘Bushisms’, Joe Biden has ‘Bidenisms’ — a term that dates as far back as 2007, when Biden spoke of a then up-and-coming presidential nominee called Barack Obama.
"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said, at a time when he was also running for a Democratic nomination.
In recent times, Biden’s gaffes have grown more frequent, with the nominee’s memory often failing him at key moments.
Speaking to reporters in Iowa, Biden said that he was vice-president during the 2018 Parkland shootings at the Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17. But, the shootings took place during Trump’s term in office, and Biden had not been vice president for over a year by the time they occurred.
When speaking about the Dayton and El Paso shootings, he mistakenly said that they had taken place in Houston and Michigan. Incidentally, Trump also gaffed on the same topic, saying that the shootings took place in Toledo instead of Dayton.
In Iowa, again, Biden mixed up Theresa May with Margaret Thatcher — again. He had done this earlier in May when he claimed to have received a phone call from Thatcher complaining about Trump.
Of course, a history of gaffes does not necessarily impede a presidential nomination — George Bush managed to win two terms despite entire poems being made on his Bushisms, while Donald Trump himself has hardly suffered on account of the things he has said.
Biden admitted his tendency to slip up in December, telling CNN, "I am a gaffe machine, but my God what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can't tell the truth.”
With eleven long months to go before the Democratic National Convention in July, 2020, Biden could still end up as the Democratic Party’s lead candidate if he maintains his lead over the other candidates in polling. Behind him are Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, with both tied for second place.
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