Cleanup: Biden campaign says he ‘misspoke’ by saying ‘poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids’

Joe Biden’s campaign manager issued a statement after he told a group in Iowa that “poor kids” were just as clever and able as “white kids.”

Kate Bedingfield blamed President Trump for focusing on the mistake by Biden, 76, which was reported by a wide variety of news outlets.

“Donald Trump is desperate to change the subject from his atrocious record of using racism to divide this country,” she said. “Vice President Biden 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.

“The Trump campaign posting the video without the Vice President’s immediate correction is patently disingenuous.”

In fact, the Trump campaign video, tweeted out by rapid response director Andrew Clark with the comment “Yikes…have fun mitigating that one,” did include Biden’s correction.

Speaking at a town hall for the Asian & Latino Coalition PAC in Iowa, the former vice president said, “The other thing we should do is we should challenge these students. We should challenge students in these schools that have advanced placement classes in these schools. We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor you cannot do it.

“Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids — ” Biden said, to some applause, before quickly correcting himself, “ — wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids.”


During the same speech, Biden mixed up former British premier Theresa May with her long-dead predecessor Margaret Thatcher. It was the second time he had done so since May.

Earlier Thursday, Biden had made another fumble while addressing a gathering at the Iowa State Fair, saying: “We choose truth over facts.” Last week, Biden made another flub and used the nonexistent word “expodentially” when speaking to reporters.

In his second presidential primary debate, Biden made a number of slip-ups over statistics, phrases, and titles. Even though Trump is limited to two terms in office, Biden warned that “eight more years of Trump” would fundamentally change the country.

The Trump camapign’s Clark clashed with Biden’s rapid response director Andrew Bates on Twitter, telling him: “You’re trying to blame us for tweeting your boss’ own unfiltered comments. Weird flex but OK.”

Clark said: “Our tweet of the video did, in fact, include Biden’s ‘immediate correction.’ They can’t even get their response right. No amount of ‘immediate corrections’ can change the fact that “slip ups” like this are part of a proven pattern for Joe Biden.”

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