Former Vice President Joe Biden said on Aug. 8 that “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”
He paused as several people started applauding before adding “wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids.”
Biden was speaking at the Asian & Latino Coalition PAC in Iowa after visiting the Iowa State Fair.
Prior to the remarks, he said, according to Bloomberg: “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.”
He then added: “Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids.”
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
The line was highlighted by President Donald Trump’s campaign team. Andrew Clark, rapid response director for the campaign, wrote of the “slip-up” on Twitter: “Yikes … have fun mitigating that one.”
The clip he posted garnered more than 2 million views in about 12 hours. Biden’s campaign hasn’t issued any clarifications on the remarks.
Biden, 76, has made a series of flubs since he kicked off his campaign earlier this year, including at least two at the state fair.
At one point, he told a crowd: “We choose truth over facts.”
Oops: Biden says “we choose truth over facts” pic.twitter.com/bkohPsOmJC
— Natasha Korecki (@natashakorecki) August 8, 2019
At another point, he insisted to a reporter that President Donald Trump didn’t condemn Neo-Nazis.
Trump’s campaign hammered Biden over his “poor kids” gaffe, saying it was part of “a pattern.”
The campaign noted that Biden, speaking in 2007, suggested that one reason Washington schools fail is because they have a high percentage of minorities.
The campaign also posted a video clip of Biden’s remarks that year.
This is a pattern.
Washington Post, 2007: “Biden also stumbled through a discourse on race and education, leaving the impression that he believed one reason so many Washington D.C. schools fail is the city’s high minority population.”https://t.co/D7bT3yL7Jp pic.twitter.com/FVrBL9BSiP
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 9, 2019
Biden on why some schools perform better than others: “There’s less than 1% of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4 or 5% that are minorities. What is in [D.C.]? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with.” pic.twitter.com/A5gR18rXua
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 9, 2019
“There’s less than 1 percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4 or 5 percent that are minorities,” Biden said at the time. “What is in [D.C.]? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with.”
Biden has been widely panned for remarks suggesting racial factors before, including calling then-candidate Barack Obama: “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
Biden later issued an apology. “I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent and I expressed that to Sen. Obama,” he said, adding that he was referring to a phrase used by his mother. “My mother has an expression: clean as a whistle, sharp as a tack,” Biden said.
Biden is considered the frontrunner in the Democratic field, maintaining a lead over his challengers in the polls.
