Biden campaign shrugs off confusion over Parkland shooting timeline
The Biden campaign hits back after the former vice president mistakenly says he met with Parkland, Fla., gun massacre students while in office; Peter Doocy reports from the campaign trail in Iowa.
Biden campaign senior adviser Symone Sanders had a fiery clash with CNN anchor Brianna Keilar over the former vice president's recent string of gaffes, calling concerns about them a "press narrative."
Onetime Vice President Joe Biden, now looking toward the White House in 2020, has made headlines on the campaign trail for various misstatements -- declaring "we choose truth over facts"; saying "poor kids" are just as smart and talented as "white kids"; claiming he'd met with students after 2018's gun massacre at a Parkland, Fla., high school while still vice president.
Keilar began the interview by asking Sanders why voters should "overlook these gaffes."
"I want to be very clear; this is a press narrative, not a voter narrative," Sanders responded. "If you were to look at the coverage in Iowa this weekend and juxtapose the local newspapers and local television coverage to national media coverage, you would have thought these reporters were at two different events.”
BIDEN SAYS HE WAS VP AT TIME OF PARKLAND SHOOTING IN LATEST CAMPAIGN GAFFE
Sanders, a former CNN contributor, urged everyone, particularly reporters, to "elevate the conversation," and said the 2020 election should not be based on "so-called gaffes."
"Is it also incumbent on the vice president to do his best, to do better at how he speaks?" Keilar asked in relation to the 2020 Democrats' criticism of President Trump's rhetoric, causing Sanders to laugh at the question.
"If you put a camera in somebody’s face and a microphone on them, you follow them around 100 days, any one of us, I’m pretty sure we would be caught with a slip of the tongue. We would be caught making a mistake,” Sanders said. “The difference is Vice President Biden every single time has immediately corrected himself, ... Our campaign's point is this isn't registering with the American people."