Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden got into a testy exchange with a reporter during a wide-ranging interview with journalists representing the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
One of the panel’s journalists, CBS News’ Errol Barnett, asked if the 77-year-old former vice president had taken a cognitive test.
“No, I haven’t taken a test. Why the hell would I take a test? Come on, man,” Biden said. “That’s like saying to you, before you got on this program if you had taken a test were you taking cocaine or not. What do you think, huh? Are you a junkie?”
President Donald Trump continues to make Biden’s mental acuity a campaign issue in this fall’s election.
Biden, whose campaign is dependent on strong minority turnout, also told NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro that “unlike the African-American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community.”
Biden was responding to Garcia-Navarro’s question about granting temporary protective status to Cubans as well as Venezuelans, and whether he will engage with Cuba.
The video interview was conducted as part of the official programming for the organizations’ joint convention that started Thursday. AJC Washington correspondent Tia Mitchell was one of the participants.
If elected in November, Biden would turn 78 later that month, the oldest man ever elected president. Trump turned 74 in June.
Biden has come under fire and ridicule for gaffes on the campaign trail and during interviews. In May, he claimed on a popular Black radio talk show that “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”
After making the comments during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club,” hosted by radio personality Charlamagne tha God, he later apologized.
In late July, Biden said Trump was the country’s “first” racist president.
“The way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where they’re from, is absolutely sickening,” Biden said during a virtual town hall organized by the Service Employees International Union. “No sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We’ve had racists, and they’ve existed. They’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has.”
Those comments drew fire from the same radio host who interviewed the candidate in May.
During the November 2019 Atlanta Democratic presidential debate, Biden sent a fundraising email to his supporters. The problem was, Biden told his supporters he was leaving the debate, hours before it began.
The email and its responses was one of the evening’s most viral, social media moments.
For his part, Trump is well-known for making controversial statements, mostly on Twitter but often during press briefings and sit-downs with reporters.
Trump has come under fire for his leadership during the coronavirus. In late July, he defended his earlier assertion the coronavirus would “sort of just disappear.”
“I’ll be right eventually,” the president said.
Supporters of the president are often put in awkward positions about defending Trump’s statements. Last week, the president set the news cycle ablaze by suggesting the November election might be postponed.
Trump continues tweeting allegations the election would be “inaccurate and fraudulent” because of the widespread use of mail-in voting.
Credit: AJC
He went on to suggest a delay in the election, something he cannot legally do.
Earlier this week, Trump encouraged mail-in voting in Florida, but then announced he was suing Nevada for its new mail-in voting law.
Biden announced Wednesday he would not attend this month’s Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee due to coronavirus concerns but would deliver his nomination speech from his home state of Delaware.
Biden is also expected to announce his choice for a running mate in the coming days.
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