Biden says he was VP at time of Parkland shooting in latest campaign gaffe
Joe Biden slipped up once again on the campaign trail Saturday, saying he was vice president at the time of the mass shooting at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., adding to the number of mishaps that have drawn mockery from his opponents.
The 76-year-old Biden, who left the vice presidency in 2017, was talking about gun violence with reporters in Iowa when he said that “those kids in Parkland came up to see me when I was vice president" after the shooting that left 14 students and three educators dead.
A campaign official told
Bloomberg that Biden was thinking of the December 2012 massacre at
Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. that left 20 young children and six staff members dead.
The gaffe is the latest in a string of blunders that has dogged the 2020
Democratic frontrunner.
On Thursday, the former vice president told a crowd that "
poor kids were just as bright and talented as white kids." After a very brief pause, Biden quickly continued speaking, adding: “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids.”
Earlier this week, Biden mistakenly said the recent
mass shootings in
El Paso, Texas and
Dayton, Ohio took place in Houston and Michigan.
President Trump has tried to seize on Biden's well-publicized
gaffes to make the case that he isn't fit to lead the country. On Friday, the president said Biden "is not playing with a full deck" in response to his "poor kids" comments.
Biden says he was VP at time of Parkland shooting in latest campaign gaffe