Former Vice President Joe Biden addressed criticisms over his verbal gaffes by claiming that he doesn't get things wrong like, "we should lock kids up in cages at the border," despite viral photos from 2014 showing immigrant children sleeping on mattresses while in cages at border facilities.
"Look, it's a different thing to say when you're talking about honoring the bravery or the sacrifice or what other people went through and the essence of it is absolutely true. The fact that I said I was vice president, well, in one case I was vice president-elect, in the other I was a senator," the Democratic front runner said during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Wednesday night.
"I'm not sure that's relevant. But I don't get wrong things like, we should lock kids up in cages at the border."
The Late Show promoted the exchange on its Twitter account, writing, "@JoeBiden on his gaffes: "I don't get wrong things like, 'we should lock kids up in cages.'"
Last year, former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau shared a viral photo of two children sleeping in a cage in an attempt to criticize the Trump administration's family separation policy. Further reporting found that the photo was from 2014—under the Obama administration's border policy—and a Snopes fact check found the Obama administration built cages that were used for detaining immigrant children at the border.
Favreau deleted the tweet and later published a thread explaining his mistake. "I tweeted a story that multiple journalists were posting. My mistake for not checking the date first. A few minutes later, when I realized my error, I deleted the tweet and immediately tweeted the correct info and date of the picture," he wrote.
"In 2014, when the Obama Administration dealt with an influx of unaccompanied minors who showed up at the border, fleeing violence from Central America, the agencies charged with sheltering the children were overwhelmed, and the conditions were often atrocious."
Fox News contributor Stephen Miller called attention to the situation on Twitter.
Any fact-checker journalists, in this golden age of truth telling we are constantly reminded we’re in, want to field this one? Anyone? CNN? Wash Post? pic.twitter.com/GFvUo5T7f8
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 5, 2019