Former Vice President Joe Biden forgot to filter his mouth again. During an interview, the presidential candidate was asked if he has taken a cognitive test. He responded to CBS News national correspondent Errol Barnett by asking, “Are you a junkie?”
Barnett released a preview clip from the 2020 National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) Joint Virtual Convention in which he asked Biden about Trump’s attacks on Biden, Mediate reported.
“President Trump has made your mental state a campaign topic, and when asked in June if you’d been tested for cognitive decline, you responded that you’re constantly tested, in effect because you’re in situations like this on the campaign trail,” Barnett said.
“Please clarify, specifically, have you taken a cognitive test?”
“No I haven’t taken a test. Why the hell would I take a test?” Biden replied, adding, “Come on man, that’s like saying before you got on this program, did you take a test where you’re taking cocaine or not, what do you think huh?”
Biden added, with a laugh, “Are you a junkie?”
“What do you say to President Trump, who brags about his test and makes your mental state an issue for voters?” Barnett asked.
“Well, if he can’t figure out the difference between an elephant and a lion, I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” Biden said, referencing the Montreal Cognitive Assessment that Trump constantly brags about “acing.”
“Look, c’mon man, I know you’re trying to goad me, but I’m so forward-looking to have an opportunity to sit or stand with the president on the debates,” Biden said.
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The interview paints Biden as a man who doesn’t think before he speaks. Hypothetical or not, would he have asked the same question to a white reporter? This is the second questionable run-in Biden has had with the Black press.
He questioned the “Blackness” of voters who are undecided. During an interview with Charlemagne Tha God on “The Breakfast Club” radio show, Biden made the now-infamous statement, “Well, I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black.”
A number of high-profile accounts on Twitter called the interview a “disaster.”
Donald Trump Jr. posted a clip to Twitter and asked, “Will someone please make it stop? When does this become elder abuse?”
Breitbart dubbed the interview a “Biden trainwreck.”
Activist Shaun King, a high-profile surrogate for Bernie Sanders during the 2020 Democratic Primary, lamented the exchange, given his support for Biden over Trump, Heavy reported.
“I decided to limit my criticisms of Joe Biden to one per week,” King tweeted. “This is my one. Keep him off television. This was a damn Level 10 disaster. From losing his cool asking this reporter, ‘Are you a junkie’ to everything else about it. Sigh.”
Jamarlin Martin, CEO and founder of The Moguldom Nation, tweeted, “It would have been funny if the NABJ reporter responded ‘I’m not a junkie but Hunter Biden never did any hard time for being one. How do you feel about you & Clinton putting so many junkies in jail, setting a federal template for states to follow?'”
