Accident-prone Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden quickly launched into damage control on Thursday after he told the audience at a town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, that “poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids.”
He quickly added: “wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids, no I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”
Biden made the blunder while talking about race and education at a town hall event with the Asian and Latino Coalition, after spending the day campaigning and discussing gun reform at the Iowa State Fair.
To make matters worse, just hours earlier, the former vice president had put his foot in his mouth again, saying during a speech at the fair that “we choose science over fiction, we choose truth over facts.”
The 76-year-old has made a number of major gaffes on the campaign trail so far, including telling viewers of the second Democratic Debate to “go to Joe 30330” ― despite that web address not existing, and also confusing the El Paso and Dayton mass shooting locations with Houston and Michigan.
Watch Biden’s moment at the Iowa town hall here:
Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield addressed the moment in a statement, characterizing it as a slip-up.
“Vice President Biden 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,” she said.
This story has been updated with a response from Biden’s campaign.