President Trump on Friday mocked former Vice President Joe Biden after the Democratic presidential candidate committed a gaffe by telling supporters that “poor kids” are “just as talented as white kids” before correcting himself to say “wealthy kids.”
“Joe is not playing with a full deck. He made that comment, I said ‘woah,’ ” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a fundraiser in the Hamptons.
{mosads}”This is not somebody you can have as your president, but if he got the nomination I’d be thrilled,” he added.
The president, who is 73, has in the past asserted without elaborating that Biden, 76, is not as mentally and physically sharp as he used to be. Trump has fixated on the former vice president, who leads in Democratic primary polls and edges Trump in polls of a hypothetical 2020 match-up.
Biden has ratcheted up his criticism of Trump in recent days, accusing the president of “fanning the flames” of white supremacy and lacking moral leadership.
During an Iowa campaign stop on Thursday evening, Biden told prospective voters that “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids. Wealthy kids. Black kids. Asian kids. No, I really mean it. But think how we think about it.”
“They can do anything anybody else can do, given a shot,” Biden said.
Biden’s campaign said in a statement that the former vice president “misspoke and immediately corrected himself during a refrain he often uses to make the point that all children deserve a fair shot.”