Joe Biden perpetuated his reputation for making verbal missteps on the campaign trail during his trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The 2020 Democratic presidential nominee and two-term vice president joked that the community leaders gathered at Kenosha’s Grace Lutheran Church Thursday to discuss racial injustice and police brutality would shoot him if he prattled on about his tax plan.
“If you make less than $400,000, you’re not going to get a penny tax, and you’re going to get a tax cut if you make under $125,000,” he started saying. “I’m not going lay it out for you. I won’t now because they’ll shoot me.”
Biden mentioned his tax plan in response to residents’ concerns, listing some of his policy prescriptions aimed at mitigating perceived inequality and discrimination. The candidate, who often references how long he’s been speaking during his remarks, had earlier said he’d been talking for an extended period of time.
He also quipped to the moderator, “You’re getting too antsy. Sit down.”
The semipublic campaign event followed Biden’s private meeting with Jacob Blake’s family. During the listening session, Biden told the crowd he spoke to the 29-year-old black man, who was shot seven times in the back by a white police officer during an Aug. 23 arrest, via the phone for about 15 minutes.
“He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him. How whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up,” Biden said.
