Former vice president Joe Biden, who is currently seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, made an eyebrow-raising statement while speaking to a crowd in Iowa on Aug. 8.
“We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it,” he reportedly said to the Asian and Latino Coalition during a town hall in Des Moines. “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids… wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids.”
In a statement, Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said he “misspoke and immediately corrected himself during a refrain he often uses to make the point that all children deserve a fair shot, and children born into lower-income circumstances are just as smart as those born to wealthy parents.”
Biden recently commented on Donald Trump’s inability to unite the country during his presidency.
“Trump offers no moral leadership, seems to have no interest in unifying this nation. No evidence that the presidency has awakened his conscious in the least,” He said of 45. “Indeed, we have a president with a toxic tongue who has publicly and unapologetically embraced the political strategy of hate, racism and division. So it’s up to us.”