Presidential candidate Joe Biden suffered yet another verbal gaffe on the campaign trail Thursday while addressing a crowd of mostly Asian and Latino voters.
The Democratic frontrunner was speaking at a town hall in Des Moines, Iowa, for the Asian & Latino Coalition when he declared that “poor kids are just as bright, just as talented as white kids.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden, 76, raised eyebrows on the campaign trail Thursday after seemingly implying that white children are smarter and more talented than non white children. (YouTube / video screenshot)
After a brief pause, he quickly added: “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids, no I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”
The blunder came as Biden, 76, was discussing race and education as part of a four-day campaign swing in the Hawkeye State. He also spoke at the Iowa State Fair earlier in the day.
“We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it,” he said. “We think how we’re going to dumb it down. They can do anything anybody else can do, given a shot.”
Though the former VP tried his best correct the Freudian slip, the damage was already done — and backlash was swift.
“Joe Biden literally just implied white kids are brighter and more talented than non white kids, omg,” writer Pardes Seleh tweeted.
“Yes, Black kids are Joe. Yes they are,” Bishop Talbert Swan wrote in response to Biden’s comments. “They’re not all poor by the way. Just thoughts you should know that.”
“Guys, please stop supporting Joe Biden,” another chimed in. “Holy f–k.”
“Yikes … have fun mitigating that one,” one man said of the blunder.
Biden’s campaign has been peppered with embarrassing slip-ups. Just hours before the Asian & Latino Coalition event, the presidential hopeful stuck his foot in his mouth at the state fair, telling the crowd “we choose science over fiction, we choose truth over facts.” He also recently confused the locations of the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings with Houston and Michigan.
The harshest criticism came last month when Biden, 76, was accused of boasting about his work with “proud” segregationists, remarks he refused to apologize for despite outcry from several African-American leaders, including Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris.
“Apologize for what?” Biden said at the time. “There’s not a racist bone in my body. I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career. Period.”
