At least he didn’t call him “fat.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden got into yet another heated exchange with a private citizen while on the 2020 campaign trail, this time on the subject of gun rights and the Second Amendment. Unsurprisingly, Biden is as ignorant on the issue as Beto O’Rourke, whom the former vice president announced last week would “be the one who leads” his gun control efforts.
Biden was confronted Tuesday in Detroit by a construction worker who accused him of being anti-Second Amendment. The exchange went off the rails pretty much immediately.
WATCH: “You’re full of sh*t,” @JoeBiden tells a man who accused him of “actively trying to end our Second Amendment right.”
“I support the Second Amendment,” Biden adds while vising under-construction auto plant in Detroit. @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/sueOSBaY9P
— Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) March 10, 2020
“You are actively trying to end our Second Amendment right and take away our guns,” the worker told Biden.
The former vice president responded, “You’re full of shit. … I support the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment — just like right now, if you yelled ‘fire,’ that’s not free speech. … I’m not taking your gun away at all. At all. You need 100 rounds?”
The worker again accused Biden of “trying to take our guns.”
“I did not say that!” the former vice president shouted. “I did not say that.”
The man claimed he saw Biden say as much in “a viral video.” (This is a partly false claim.)
“It’s a viral video like the other ones they’re putting out that are simply a lie,” said the 2020 Democratic primary candidate, putting his finger in the man’s face and claiming that it was “AR-14s” that he was targeting.
The construction worker said, “This is not OK, alright?”
“Don’t tell me that, pal,” said Biden, his finger still in the man’s face, “or I’m going to go out and slap you in the face.”
“You’re working for me, man!” the worker responded.
“I’m not working for you,” said Biden. “Don’t be such a horse’s ass. … Look, here’s the deal. Here’s the deal. Are you able to own a machine gun?”
The man noted correctly that “machine guns are illegal.”
“That’s right! So are AR-15s illegal!” Biden noted, incorrectly.
The man answered, “That’s not even a machine gun! That’s a semi-automatic!”
“Do you need 100 rounds?” shouted Biden. “Do you need 100 rounds?”
The former vice president was then escorted away from the conversation by his campaign aides.
As to the question of whether Biden is “trying to take our guns,” it is important to note that he announced last week that failed 2020 candidate Beto O’Rourke would lead his gun control efforts as president. O’Rourke, you may recall, is the one who boasted during a Democratic primary debate, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15s!” (Not AR-14s — which, although real, are rare. That was almost certainly a Biden mistake.)
As for the “fire in a theater” argument for gun control, enough already — it is a discredited argument that has been rejected by the modern Supreme Court with respect to the First Amendment. How can you apply it to the Second Amendment?
The talking heads are probably correct when they say Biden’s outbursts and threats in Detroit won’t damage his candidacy. But damn if the former vice president does not come out of that interaction looking every bit like a horse’s ass. It won’t help with gun owners in the general election either.
Good luck running that campaign of contrasts against President Trump.
