Former Vice PresidentJoe Bidenon Thursday got into a heated exchange with a man in Iowa who was questioning him about his ethics, his age and his son’s business decisions.
Biden’s response was sharp and a bit sarcastic, calling the man a “damn liar” after the man repeated some baseless claims about Biden, his son and Ukraine.
The 77-year-old Biden, who is the front-runner to challenge PresidentDonald Trumpnext year, reportedly got into the verbal scrap during a question-and-answer session with voters in New Hampton, Iowa.
Echoing conservative claims about the Bidens that have never been proven, the man questioned son Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and said Vice President Biden had been “selling access” to then-PresidentBarack Obama.
“You’re a damn liar, man,” Vice President Biden replied. “That’s not true. And no one has ever said that. No one has proved that.”
Biden walked toward the man as he responded and then drily challenged him to a pushup contest to show he was “not sedentary.” (Polling shows Biden’s age isan area of concernfor voters.)
“Look, the reason I’m running is because I’ve been around a long time and I know more than most people know and I can get things done. That’s why I’m running,” Biden told the man. “And you want to check my shape, man, let’s do push-ups together here, man, let’s run, let’s do whatever you want to do, let’s take an IQ test.”
Joe Biden.Preston Ehrler/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty
Biden is a leading candidate in the large field of Democratic politicians seeking the party’s nomination next summer. The group was further whittled down this week after three candidates, including the once hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris,dropped out.
Though there has been no evidence the Bidens did anything wrong in Ukraine, Hunterhas said he showed poor judgmentin taking a position with an energy company despite no specific experience in the industry.
On Thursday, reporters asked Biden about the exchange after the event, where he said he hadn’t gotten overly angry.
“I didn’t lose my temper. You want to see my temper, keep going,” Biden said, according toPoliticoand theTimes, which was met with some laughter.
“I didn’t lose my temper,” he said. “What I wanted to do was shut this down.”
According toPolitico, the Biden campaign had to clarify later that Biden had not called the man “fat” during their exchange, as it appeared, but instead said the word “facts.”
source: people.com
