Former Vice President Joe Biden struggled to name the department of Health and Human Services (HHS) while discussing his proposal to expand Obamacare and lower drug prices.
Biden, whose gaffes have reignited doubts about his fitness for the presidency, made the blunder while discussing how his public health insurance option would decrease the price of prescription drugs with a NBC affiliate in Iowa.
“We should set up a system, which I’ve proposed [and] will if I’m elected president, that allows the folks at H-H, the folks at health and—the health department in the United States—HHS, to be able to go out and bring together experts and make a judgement when there is a patent being sought by a drug company,” Biden said in an interview that aired Sunday.
The flub was the latest in a series of high profile gaffes that have consumed Biden’s campaign in recent weeks. Biden’s troubles began innocently enough at the Iowa State Fair earlier this month, when he told voters “we choose truth over facts.”
“Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. Even his supporters know who he is. We got to let him know who we are. We choose unity over division,” the former vice president said towards the end of his stump speech. “We choose science over fiction. We choose truth over facts.”
As Breitbart News reported, the comment was likely the result of Biden flubbing an applause line he frequently uses on the trail: “we have to choose hope over fear, unity over division and, maybe most importantly, truth over lies.”
The 76-year-old candidate’s gaffes only increased from there, culminating in Biden making a racially insensitive remark about “poor kids” and claiming he was in office during the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida — which took place one year after he left he White House.
Such gaffes and questionable statements have led many on the left, including Biden’s own allies, to question if the former vice president is fit to run and hold elective office.
Biden and his team owe it to voters to put him run a real, rigorous public campaign schedule, like everyone else. If he can hack it, great. If not, better to know sooner rather than later. Keeping him under wraps except for big events while trying to skate by is just sketchy. https://t.co/YV7GRB1B1f
— Adam Jentleson 🎈🐢 (@AJentleson) August 9, 2019
Such sentiments have continued to swirl around Biden, to the point that he was forced to respond to respond to those them while campaigning in New Hampshire on Friday.
“I want to be clear; I’m not going nuts,” the former vice president said.
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