Scott Morgan/ReutersJoe Biden raised eyebrows Thursday night after telling a crowd made up mostly of Asian and Hispanic voters that “poor kids are just as bright” as “white kids.” The former vice president and 2020
Democratic presidential candidate was speaking at a town hall for the Asian & Latino Coalition PAC in Des Moines, Iowa, when he made the gaffe.“We should challenge students in these schools and have advanced placement programs in these schools,” the 2020 frontrunner said. “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.” He quickly corrected himself, adding “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids” to the list. “No I really mean it, but think how we think about it,” he said.President Trump’s re-election campaign was quick to seize on the slip-up and share a video of the remarks. “Yikes… have fun mitigating that one,” Andrew Clark, rapid response director for the
Trump campaign, wrote on Twitter.Biden, who has dubbed himself a “gaffe machine” for his well-documented history with verbal blunders and embarrassing slip-ups, has yet to comment on his remarks, which came just hours after he said
President Trump “encourages white supremacists.”