Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden stumbled over his words during a Saturday speech in Kansas City, Missouri, resulting in a video clip by White House social media director Dan Scavino that made Biden appear to endorse the reelection of President Donald Trump.
After the video posted on Twitter, it was pointed out that it had been deceptivley edited to leave out Biden’s full comment and that the notion that Biden endorsed Trump’s reelection was false given the full context of his statement.
The former vice president, who has regained his frontrunner status after his victories last week in the Super Tuesday primaries, first suggested that negative campaigning would hurt the Democrats’ chances of regaining the White House in November before stumbling over his words.
“Turn this primary from a campaign that’s about negative attacks into one about what we’re for,” Biden said in the clip posted by Scavino. “Because we cannot reelect, we cannot win this reelection. Excuse me, we can only reelect Donald Trump … ”
Scavino only provided that section of Biden’s speech in his tweet, suggesting that Biden was endorsing the president’s reelection. (RELATED: Biden Rules Out Second Term If He Loses ‘Energy And Mental Acuity’)
Sleepy Joe????in St. Louis, Missouri today:
“We can only re-elect @realDonaldTrump.”#KAG2020LandslideVictory???????? pic.twitter.com/FT4q2MWfcD
— Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) March 8, 2020
Though the tweet proved extremely popular, it has been criticized for being deceptive and inaccurate. A CNN story reported that Scavino cut off the candidate mid-sentence in the video.
President Donald Trump appears at a rally on the eve of the South Carolina primary on February 28, 2020 in North Charleston, South Carolina. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
“Excuse me. We can only reelect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here. It’s gotta be a positive campaign,” Biden said after the initial statement provided by Scavino. Biden has suggested it is time for he and rival Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to cease “negative attacks.” (RELATED: Joe Biden Stumbles Over His Words In Iowa Speech)
Biden has frequently made gaffes on the campaign trail. On Super Tuesday he mistook his wife for his sister. In February, while speaking to supporters in Charleston, South Carolina, the candidate described himself as running for “the United States Senate.” Biden began his career in federal politics as a senator from Delaware.