Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden struggled to look mentally sharp during a town hall event in Iowa on Tuesday as he appeared to suggest that a non-citizen could run for president, refused to acknowledge anything positive about America’s strong economy, and repeatedly mixed up countries.
“That’s like just flat out acknowledging, we’ve been doing everything we can do to keep Biden from being the nominee,” said Biden, referring to his allegations that President Donald Trump tried to get Ukraine to investigate him because Trump was scared of Biden being the nominee. “And guess what? We tried it in Iraq, it’s not working so well, I mean in Iran, excuse me, we tried in Ukraine.”
WATCH:
Joe Biden confuses Iraq, Iran, And Ukrainepic.twitter.com/MrdpFr8KZn
— Tommy Pigott (@TCPigott) January 30, 2020
Biden was later confronted by a voter who encouraged him to at least recognize things that were good with the economy under Trump.
“There’s only one way you can win this,” the voter said to Biden. “When you’re on the stage with Donald Trump, you’re going to say, ‘Donald, you have done some good things, I’m going to take what’s good that you did, I’m going to add to it, and I’m going to do it with dignity.'”
“Not everything that the other side [does] is bad,” the voter continued. “Not everything about the Democrat ideas are good. There’s good in both.”
“You gotta give me a couple of the good things,” Biden responded.
“The good things: the unemployment is good now,” the voter responded.
“Yeah, unemployment is good but wages are down,” Biden falsely claimed as wages have dramatically increased under the Trump administration.
“Come on, accept the good,” the voter responded. “You said there is no good on the other side?”
“I didn’t say that,” Biden claimed.
“Name one thing that’s good from the other side,” the voter pressed.
“[Mumbling] I can’t think of anything off the top of my head,” Biden said as he quickly tried to move away from the voter.
WATCH:
Iowa voter confronts Joe Biden on the strong Trump economy: “accept the good”pic.twitter.com/lj5qhb2MBq
— Tommy Pigott (@TCPigott) January 30, 2020
Later, Biden appeared to suggest that an admitted foreign national could run for president and beat Trump.
“I think you could beat him,” Biden said to the man.
The man responded, “I don’t think I could, I’m not an American citizen.”
Biden responded, “Well, you might be able to, who knows.”
WATCH:
Joe Biden to non-U.S. citizen: you “might be able” to run for president, “who knows”pic.twitter.com/YsGAAjOzy8
— Tommy Pigott (@TCPigott) January 30, 2020
Biden has repeatedly struggled in recent days with comments that he has made on the campaign trail.
On Tuesday, Biden said in regards to who he will pick as his vice president running mate, assuming that he wins the party’s nomination, that “it has to be demonstrated that whoever I pick is two things.”
“One, is capable of being president, because I’m an old guy,” Biden said as the crowd laughed. “No, I’m serious. Look, thank God I’m in great health, I work out, no I’m serious, you know I work out every morning. I’m in good shape.”
WATCH:
.@JoeBiden: "Whomever I pick” for VP, must “be capable of being president, because I’m an old guy — no I’m serious!” pic.twitter.com/WGnGkNnghI
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 29, 2020
On Saturday, Biden struggled to remember when the last time was that he was elected, saying it was “January of 2012, actually 2013, no wait a minute, we got elected in 2012, 2010 or 13.”
WATCH:
At a Marshalltown, Iowa, town hall on 01/26, Joe Biden was recounting waiting for Obama to pick him up to head to the inauguration in “January of 2012, actually 2013, no wait a minute, we got elected in 2012, 2010 or 13.”
Biden does not remember when the last time he was elected pic.twitter.com/y6TGgbsHb3
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 29, 2020