Worst Biden Gaffe Yet? Confuses Parkland and Sandy Hook Shootings
Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden has had yet another gaffe on the campaign trail in what is quickly becoming a worrisome trend for anyone hoping to see the former vice president in the Oval Office.
For his detractors? It’s been more than just a field day. It’s basically been a field week.
Biden’s latest mistake on the campaign trail took place in Iowa, where he was speaking to reporters about the conversations surrounding Second Amendment rights.
“Those kids in Parkland came up to see me when I was vice president,” Biden told reporters, according to Bloomberg.
Biden also added that congressional lawmakers were “basically cowering, not wanting to see them. They did not want to face it on camera.”
It’s a nice story and would probably have scored Biden some points with the anti-Second Amendment crowd.
There’s just one small problem with what Biden said — it couldn’t have possibly been true.
Biden left the vice presidency in January 2017. The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 14 students and three adults dead, took place in February 2018.
A Biden campaign official told Bloomberg the former vice president was actually referring to the December 2012 shooting that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 26 dead, including 20 children.
That’s certainly an explanation, but it’s a far from a satisfactory one. Biden may have misspoken, but confusing two different tragedies — especially ones of this magnitude — is not the best look for the 2020 hopeful.
The fact that Biden’s age, 76, is already somewhat of an issue in the campaign just makes it worse.
Even more worrisome for Biden supporters is that this latest incident is hardly unique. In fact, Biden’s slip-ups are almost becoming as much a part of his candidacy as his actual policies.
Last week, commenting on the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Biden referred to them taking place in “Houston” and “Michigan.”
On Thursday, Biden made a jaw-dropping mistake while speaking at an Asian and Latino Coalition town hall on education in Iowa.
“We should challenge students in these schools and have advanced placement programs in these schools. We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it,” Biden said.
“Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.” Whoops.
Joe Biden slip-up in Iowa tonight.
“Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”
Yikes…have fun mitigating that one. pic.twitter.com/m2VxZbnFHF
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) August 9, 2019
Biden’s staffers and supporters might be willing to chalk up his misstatements to harmless slips of the tongue amid the pressures of constant campaigning, and some of that is understandable.
But even in the awful metric of mass shootings, Sandy Hook and Parkland stand out for their ferocity, and the way they’ve been branded on the public mind.
Biden has made plenty of gaffes, but this might be the worst one yet.
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