Former vice president Joe Biden told a Democratic voter asking about climate change to "go vote for someone else" and then wrongfully accused him of supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.).
"I'm going to support you if you win the nomination because we've got to get rid of Trump. What are we going to do about climate change?" asked Ed Fallon, who was a member in the Iowa General Assembly from 1993 to 2006, during a Biden campaign event Tuesday in Iowa. "We have to stop building and replacing pipelines."
"You ought to go vote for someone else because you're not going to vote for me in the primary," Biden responded.
"I'm going to vote you in the general if you treat me right," Fallon said.
Biden told him he was looking for primary supporters, not general election supporters. Biden then started to criticize what Sanders has promised to do about climate change, seeming to assume Fallon was a Sanders supporter. Fallon interrupted to say he is actually a Tom Steyer supporter.
"Tom Steyer? Well that's good," Biden responded.
Original post (I shot the video) pic.twitter.com/TMp60C5oXm
— Kathy Byrnes (@KathyM_Byrnes) January 30, 2020
Biden and Sanders have clashed as the pair have pulled ahead of the rest of the Democratic field in national polling. Polls of Iowa are tighter, and the Iowa caucuses will take place Monday, Feb. 3.
Fallon is a climate-change activist and has his own political podcast.