While Joe Biden may have avoided the embarrassment of staying in the Granite State Tuesday only to come in fifth place in a contest he repeatedly said he’d be victorious in, his campaign event in South Carolina didn’t go over much better.
The event was full of gaffes that don’t do much to convince voters that he’s the best Democrat for the job. Zach Parkinson, Deputy Director of Communications for President Trump’s reelection campaign, highlighted four examples.
1. He told the crowd that he and President Obama defeated an incumbent, which is simply not true.
"All those Democrats who won against incumbents, from Jimmy Carter to a guy named Clinton to a guy named Obama, my good friend -- guess what, they had overwhelming African American support," Biden said.
In just 17 minutes, Biden:
— Zach Parkinson (@AZachParkinson) February 12, 2020
1/forgot that he & Obama didn't defeat an incumbent in 2008 https://t.co/aTHqhNkBTS
2. He mistakenly said that the primary he just lost was Nevada's, but that state won't hold its caucuses until Feb. 22.
In just 17 minutes, Biden:
— Zach Parkinson (@AZachParkinson) February 12, 2020
1/forgot that he & Obama didn't defeat an incumbent in 2008 https://t.co/aTHqhNkBTS
3. Biden almost got his campaign's text number wrong, which was visible to him just about anywhere he would've looked around.
3/ Nearly botched his text number, which is written on his podium and all the campaign signs surrounding him pic.twitter.com/nhUYeT4xCC
— Zach Parkinson (@AZachParkinson) February 12, 2020
4. He got South Carolina's geography wrong.
4/ Talked about how much he loves South Carolina's low country, even though he was in Columbia, which is even by a generous definition, not a part of it pic.twitter.com/dYzX1DuI9R
— Zach Parkinson (@AZachParkinson) February 12, 2020
Despite his loss on Tuesday, Biden remained optimistic, calling Iowa and New Hampshire the "opening bell, not the closing bell." He also suggested his strength would be in attracting support from minority voters.
"You can't be the Democratic nominee and you can't win a general election as a Democrat unless you have overwhelming support from black and brown voters," he said.
But CNN's Van Jones took issue with that strategy.
“Listen, he’s doing this rope a-dope strategy, ‘I’m just going to get pounded in Iowa, I’m going to get pounded in New Hampshire and I’m going to come back based on black people kind of lifting me over this sort of … all these deficits,'” Jones said.
“And maybe it’ll work for him but it’s a very odd strategy, it’s a very weird strategy and I don’t know if he knows that African-Americans are watching TV at night and see you can’t get white votes.”