Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden issued an instant correction during a dramatic moment in the Tuesday night debate in Ohio.
During a fiery back-and-forth between billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the 78-year-old former vice president defended his plan to tax the wealthy by hiking the current capital gains tax. He rejected the idea of demonizing wealthy Americans but got tripped up when he laid out his plan to restructure the U.S. tax code.
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“Demonizing wealth … I talked about how you get things done. The way to get things done is take a look at the tax code right now. The idea, we have to start rewarding work, not just wealth. I would eliminate the capital gains tax,” Biden said, before immediately changing his tune. “I would raise the capital gains tax to the highest rate of 39.5%. I would double it, because, guess what? Why in God’s name should someone who is clipping coupons in the stock market make, in fact, pay a lower tax rate than someone who in fact is, like I said, who is a school teacher and a firefighter?”
Biden’s misstep at a key moment in the Tuesday night debate was just one in a series of speaking errors he has made since rocketing to the head of the pack of 2020 Democrats. Biden has recently been under fire for his son Hunter’s time on the boards of foreign companies that greatly enriched him personally. Hunter Biden, 49, said on Tuesday that he didn’t believe he would have qualified for the positions if his father had not been vice president.
“It is impossible for me to be on any of the boards that I just mentioned without saying that I am the son of the vice president of the United States,” Hunter Biden said in an exclusive Tuesday interview on ABC. Once the clear Democratic front-runner, Joe Biden’s poll numbers have dropped dramatically in recent weeks.
