Former Vice President and presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden came under fire Thursday, after he mistakenly claimed that 120 million Americans have been killed by the coronavirus.
Speaking with a small group of voters in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, about healthcare reform, Biden lamented the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, saying: “What people drastically underestimate is the impact on the mental health of people who now – everything is complicated.”
“Not only is the healthcare piece, but people don’t have a job, people don’t have anywhere to go, they don’t know what they’re going to do.”
“And a lot of people – you have, unnecessarily, now we have over 120 million dead from COVID.”
In the footage of the event, Biden appears to begin to correct himself, saying “I mean…” before the feed transitions to a podium where Biden spoke shortly thereafter.
In fact, about 122,000 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in the US thus far.
Biden made a similar gaffe during a Democratic Party debate in February, when he claimed that 150 million Americans had been killed by gun violence since 2007.
The Biden campaign later clarified that Biden had meant to say that 150,000 people had been killed in the US by guns since the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
Republicans pounced on the latest gaffe, suggesting Biden’s frequent verbal slip-ups hinted at a “serious” problem with the former Vice President.
“This is serious business,” Trump said to Fox News. That’s a mistake? That’s not a mistake, that’s a serious error.”
Trump went on to cite other gaffes by Biden, including his February 25th misstatement that he is “running for the US Senate”.
The president later tweeted: "If I ever said something so mortifyingly stupid, the Fake News Media would come down on me with a vengeance. This is beyond a normal mistake. Why isn’t the media reporting it?"