BOONE, Iowa — The gaffes are back.
From mangling a favorite one-liner to almost suggesting that poor kids aren’t white to flubbing his campaign’s text message address on the debate stage last week, Joe Biden’s propensity for verbal missteps burst into view after he mostly kept it in check for the first three months of his candidacy.
It reflects an ongoing difficulty for Biden: His gaffes inevitably draw outsize attention, overshadowing his message and, at times, the depth and versatility of his remarks. Biden’s headline-grabbing comment about “poor kids” was at a marathon, two-hour event addressing the Asian-Latino coalition, where he took questions and then delivered lengthy answers, at times delving deep into policy.
“We should challenge students in these schools and have advanced placement programs in these schools,” Biden said. “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.”
He quickly clarified: “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids — no I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”
Earlier Thursday, Biden stepped in it with what should have been a rote portion of his talk.
“We choose truth over facts,” Biden thundered during remarks at the Iowa State Fair. A video of that remark, subsequently reposted by Trump supporters, was viewed more than 1 million times by the next morning.
By Friday morning, Biden’s misfire provided a target of opportunity for President Donald Trump and Republicans, who said the 76-year-old is too old and implied that he’s mentally infirm.
But even some Democrats who’ve expressed concerns about Biden’s age and acuity for months increasingly are questioning whether he’s up to snuff, even though he has been the clear front-runner.
The hubbub around Biden’s recent misfire comes after the campaign intensified his campaign activity. He had been running a Rose Garden campaign, with few events and little public access as his advisers sought to help him get his sea legs. Now Biden is in the midst of a more vigorous campaign swing: Over the next month, he’ll travel across the country and to all four early states. He’s in the midst of a four-day trip through Iowa.
Christian Ucles, an Asian-Latino Coalition member who attended the event Thursday night, said he didn’t even notice the slip that’s been dominating the news cycle and was surprised when he turned on the news later and watched the clip.
“I was disappointed that the media has decided to waste a news cycle on a 10-second soundbite flub to define the two-hour-long speech that Iowa voters got to hear,” Ucles said. Biden spoke with authority on a range of topics, Ucles added, from gun control to immigration to U.S.-China relations.
Adam Jentleson, a Democrat who formerly worked for ex-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the recent string of gaffes is a testament to the importance of putting candidates through a rigorous campaign schedule, so that voters know what they’re getting.
“The worst thing would be to get into the general and then find out that there are problems,” Jentleson said.
“Everybody else is out there doing a heavy schedule and he’s not,” he added, faulting Biden’s once-light campaign schedule. “I don’t think it’s fair to anyone to try to skate by — campaigns are tough, and it’s important that everybody shows what they can do in a campaign contest. If we’re talking about, all told, a year-and-a-half here, that’s the real distance that people have to go, so part of a primary is vetting candidates and seeing if they have what it takes to go the distance.”
Joe Trippi, a veteran Democratic campaign strategist, said Biden won’t be able to avoid the questions on the campaign trail.
“It’s an easy target to associate it with his age, rather than just who Joe Biden is,” Trippi said. “The reality is that he has always had a propensity to have verbal gaffes. The difference is, whether it’s because of his age or not, opponents are going to play it up.”
On Friday, Steve Bullock, the Montana governor and Democratic presidential hopeful, knocked Biden for his trip-up over the aptitude of different types of children.
“It was wrong. As a frontrunner, if we want to beat Donald Trump, we’ve got to get it right," Bullock said in an interview. "Everybody makes mistakes, but we can’t afford those gaffes if we want to beat Donald Trump.”
However, Trippi noted, Biden is still the front-runner after months of drawing fire. And many of the criticisms of his candidacy and campaign haven’t made much of a dent.
Trippi also echoed Jentleson’s criticism by noting that Biden’s campaign may have exacerbated questions about his vigor by restricting press access to him and holding few question-and-answer town halls with constituents where he would have unscripted moments. Biden’s first in-depth public event where he couldn’t rely on talking points came in late June, during the first debate, when he was left floundering by Sen. Kamala Harris’ attacks on his past statements against busing to integrate public schools and his positive recollections of working with segregationists.
Biden recovered by the second debate and did a far better job of standing his ground. But he still struggled articulating his words and agenda at times. And in his closing statement, he confused viewers by appearing to plug his campaign website while haltingly giving out a text message number.
At the Friday event, Biden kept his remarks brief and used a teleprompter.
But before he took the lectern, there was a notable reference to Biden’s remarks and subsequent media coverage when Iowa’s Boone County Chair Tim Winter called it a difficult day for the former vice president, saying that while Biden’s so-called gaffes got much attention, Winter knew Biden has pure intentions.
“What [his remarks reflect] is a man with a good heart showing his caring leadership,” Winter said, “even when it is politically incorrect.”
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