The New York Post reported on recent gaffes delivered by Vice President Joe Biden, prompting the question: Did America’s first Black president choose a culturally clueless veep?
Gaffe-a-minute: VP invokes senator accused of harassment
By Geoff Earle
WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden on Friday committed his third stumble of the week when he praised former Oregon Republican Sen. Bob Packwood at a Democratic Women’s Leadership Forum — perhaps not the best venue to recall a figure identified with sexual harassment.
Biden invoked Packwood — who quit Congress in 1995 after 19 women accused him of making unwanted advances — while slamming the modern Republican Party for straying from the moderates who cooperated with Democrats in an earlier era.
“It was Republicans who expanded access to the polls. It was Republicans in the Judiciary Committee that did motor voter [registration]. It was Republicans that were involved, guys like Mac Mathias and Packwood and so many others. It wasn’t Democrats alone,” Biden said.
His slip came on a day when he was promoting the new White House “It’s On Us” campaign to discourage violence against women.
Biden’s comment capped a week in which he apologized after using the term “Shylocks” — a term with centuries-old anti-Semitic overtones — to refer to unscrupulous lenders preying on veterans.
Biden also referred to “the wisest man in the Orient” — using an antiquated term for Asia quickly red-flagged by critics.
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