Former Vice President Joe Biden suffered yet another gaffe Sunday evening, mistakenly referring to Houston and Michigan as the sites of two mass shootings over the weekend.
Speaking at a fundraiser in San Deigo, California, Biden gave remarks on “the tragic events in Houston today and also in Michigan the day before.” Only later did the 76-year-old correct his comments to El Paso and Ohio, according to a press pool report.
In the Texas border city of El Paso, a gunman opened fire Saturday morning in a shopping area packed with thousands of people during the busy back-to-school season. The attack killed 20 and wounded more than two dozen, many of them critically. Hours later in Dayton, Ohio, a gunman wearing body armor and carrying extra magazines opened fire in a popular nightlife area, killing nine and injuring at least 26 people. Officers gunned down the Ohio shooter, 24-year-old Connor Betts, at the doorstep of a bar-turned-hiding place in the middle of Dayton’s nightclub district, and arrested the El Paso suspect, Patrick Crusius, as hundreds fled a crowded shopping center. El Paso prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Crusius, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office is treating the incident as domestic terrorism. The Justice Department is considering hate crime charges, which carry the death penalty, against him.
Biden’s latest episode of misspeaking comes days after making at least seven gaffes at the second Democrat presidential primary debate in Detriot. The former vice president’s biggest screw up came when misdelivered the contact information for his campaign’s text message service.
“If you agree with me, Go to Joe 3-0-3-3-0, thank you very much,” Biden said. Almost immediately after the flub, a cyber-squatter bought “joe30330.com,” directing the URL to an unrelated page. During the debate, Biden also argued that the United States is unprepared to handle another “eight years” of a Trump presidency. Under the U.S. Constitution, President Donald Trump can only serve for five more years after 2019.
Earlier this year, Biden mixed up former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher with then-Prime Minister Theresa May. Thatcher stepped down as PM in 1990 and passed away in 2013. “Margaret Thatcher, um, excuse me, Margaret Thatcher — Freudian slip,” Biden said at a May fundraiser in Columbia, South, Carolina. “But I knew her too.” He then corrected himself by saying: “The Prime Minister of Great Britain Theresa May.”
The AP contributed to this report.