“I would eliminate the capital gains tax. I would raise the capital gains tax to the highest rate of 39.5%.”
That was Joe Biden during Tuesday night’s Democratic Party presidential primary debate.
The 76-year-old former vice president stumbled and bumbled his way through the two-hour debate, spewing a string of verbal gaffes not seen since, well, the last time he opened his mouth.
At one point, as he was trying to attack rivals Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Biden nearly said he ended the Roe v. Wade decision that declared abortion is a constitutionally protected right.
“Senator Warren said we can’t be running any vague campaigns. We’ve got to level with people. We’ve got to level with people and tell them exactly what we’re going to do, how we’re going to get it done, and if you can get it done. I’m going to say something that is probably going to offend some people here, but I’m the only one on this stage that has gotten anything really big done — from the Violence Against Women Act to making sure that we pass[ed] the Affordable Care Act to being in a position where we, in fact, took almost a[n] … Act that kept us from going into a depression, making us — putting us in a position where I was able to end Roe — excuse me,” he said, breaking off quickly.
Biden, who was once chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also confused Afghanistan and Iraq as he talked about President Trump’s foreign policy.
“Think what’s happened. The fact of the matter is you have Russia influencing and trying to break up NATO. What does the president do? He says I believe Vladimir Putin. I believe Vladimir Putin, I don’t believe our intelligence community,” Biden said. “What is happening in Iraq — excuse me, in Afghanistan — as well as all the way over to Syria, we have ISIS that’s going to come here. They are going to, in fact, damage the United States of America. That’s why we got involved in the first place.”
Biden got even more befuddled when he tried to explain his own tax plan.
“I would eliminate the capital gains tax — I would raise the capital gains tax to the highest rate, of 39.5%. I would double it, because guess what? Why in God’s name should someone who’s clipping coupons in the stock market make — in fact, pay a lower tax rate than someone who, in fact, is — like I said — the — a schoolteacher and a firefighter? It’s ridiculous. And they pay a lower tax,” he said about Sanders’ and Warren’s plans to raise taxes on top U.S. earners.
Clipping coupons in the stock market? Um, OK.
Biden’s gaffes have become a thing of legend. At the last Democratic Party debate, Biden at one point blurted out, “go to Joe 3-0-3-3-0.” Apparently, he meant to tell viewers they should text “Joe” to 30330, but he looked out of it with the blunder. There are plenty more: In New Hampshire, he said he loved it there … in Vermont. Then he said, “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”