Former Vice President Joe Biden has been widely criticized for wrongly claiming that "120 million [people are] dead from COVID."
People quickly took to social media to wonder what's wrong with Biden's mental health.
President Trump himself even chimed in, calling Biden's comments "mortifyingly stupid."
Over the last few months, multiple observers have questioned the state of Joe Biden's mental acuity. Whenever he appears on the campaign trail, he's prone to making gaffes and verbal slip-ups.
It's worth noting that he corrected himself after his claim, but 120 million Americans is over 1/3rd of the entire country.
See Biden's comments, as well as Trump's response on Fox News' Hannity, below:
Though Biden corrected himself, many are wondering if his mental acuity is fit to be President of the United States.
Biden's frequency and severity of verbal mishaps is alarming to many observers.
Many point out that if President Trump said some of the same things that Biden has said, the media would be questioning his fitness to be president.
The New York Post has more details on Biden's latest mishap:
Self-proclaimed “gaffe machine” Joe Biden added several extra zeroes to the nation’s coronavirus death toll during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania — prompting President Trump to slam the prospective Democratic nominee’s “mortifyingly stupid” comment.
“People don’t have a job, people don’t know where to go, they don’t know what to do,” the former vice president said in Lancaster on Thursday, Fox News reported. “Now we have over 120 million dead from COVID.”
In reality, the death toll from the illness in the US stood at about 122,000, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
Biden, 77, did manage to catch himself when he uttered the flub, which didn’t make it into the pool video of the event, according to the news outlet.The president seized on the verbal slip-up in a tweet.
“If I ever said something so mortifyingly stupid, the Fake News Media would come down on me with a vengeance,” Trump wrote. “This is beyond a normal mistake. Why isn’t the media reporting it?”
Steve Guest, the Republican National Committee’s national response chief, posted a clip of Biden’s blunder and wrote: “WHAT IS GOING ON WITH JOE BIDEN?”
The president’s re-election campaign called Biden “very confused,” adding that “he’s not playing with a full deck, folks.”
“This is after he previously claimed 150 million Americans died from guns,” the Trump War Room said, referring to Biden’s bungling of statistics about how many Americans had been killed by gun violence since 2007 during a debate with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in February.
Indeed, we can only imagine the media response if President Trump ever made a similar mistake.
Yet despite being one of the most transparent presidents in terms of press conferences and accessibility to the press, Trump has rarely made any verbal slip-ups.
Compare this to Biden, who's gaffes have worried even diehard Democrats.
This is why many observers are eager to see the presidential debates.
People are wondering how Biden will be able to hold himself 1-1 against President Trump, who is known to be dominant on the debate stage.
Fox News has more details on how Republicans and the Trump re-election campaign have seized on Biden's latest gaffe to question his mental fitness:
Republicans are slamming Joe Biden after the presumptive Democratic nominee made a verbal gaffe during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania and said 120 million people had died from the novel coronavirus.
“People don’t have a job, people don’t know where to go, they don’t know what to do,” Biden said Thursday. “Now we have over 120 million dead from COVID.”
As of Thursday, there have been more than 122,000 – not million -- coronavirus deaths in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins figures.
While Biden appears to immediately catch himself after his gaffe -- the pool video of Biden’s comments cuts off after he made the remark – Republicans were quick to jump on the former vice president’s comment.
“WHAT IS GOING ON WITH JOE BIDEN?” Steve Guest, the Republican National Committee’s rapid response director, tweeted out with a link to the clip.
President Trump’s reelection campaign team went after Biden even harder – calling him “very confused” and dredging up one of Biden’s past gaffes when he said that 150 million Americans had died from gun violence since 2007.
“Joe Biden is very confused,” the campaign tweeted out. “He's not playing with a full deck, folks. #BarelyThereBiden.”
Biden was in Lancaster, Pa., to discuss unveil his healthcare proposals as his campaign revs up for more appearances after months indoors amid the coronavirus pandemic. His campaign has focused on small group gatherings to mitigate chances of spreading COVID-19 instead of large public rallies like Trump has begun to hold again.
Biden's apparent mental decline is why President Trump has suggested that Biden will be a "puppet" for the radical left.
It's an incredibly effective attack because it raises concerns around Biden's mental fitness while also pointing out the continued radicalism of the left.
President Trump is keeping his best attacks against Joe Biden until the campaign truly is in full gear.
Trump is only about to get stronger!
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