Joe Biden Under Fire for Saying “poor kids” Just As Talented As “white kids”

At an education town hall in Des Moines, Iowa hosted by the Asian and Latino Coalition, presidential hopeful Joe Biden managed to place his foot into his mouth again and has come under fire on social media.

“We should challenge students in these schools that have Advanced Placement programs in these schools,” Biden said the majority minority crowd. “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.”

After a brief pause, Biden added: “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids, no, I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”

Biden’s remark did not go over well on social media on Thursday night.

https://twitter.com/sama20b/status/1160050426445729792

“Dems often fall into trap of talking abt poverty in same breath as Black ppl, as if poverty is always abt ppl other than white folks. There are more poor white ppl & children than black, when you look at raw numbers,” tweeted Rev. Dr. William J. Barber regarding the comments that Biden made in Iowa.

https://twitter.com/RevDrBarber/status/1160021393985155077

This is the second time this week that Biden has stumbled during both planned and impromptu speeches.

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Earlier that same day, Biden had mixed up one of his standard lines while addressing a crowd at the Iowa State Fair, saying that Americans should “choose truth over facts.” He also referred to Margaret Thatcher instead of the more recent British prime minister Theresa May.

On Friday, Biden and his camp did attempt to clarify what he had supposedly meant to say regarding poor children and minority children.

In a statement Friday, Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told The Washington Post that 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.”

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