Days after calling Iowa voter 'damn liar' Joe Biden loses cool with reporter who compared him to Trump
Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden had another moment of controversy during a recent interview which came just days after he called an elderly voter in New Hampton, Iowa, a “damn liar”. With the Iowa caucuses -- the first big test of the 2020 presidential election season -- less than two months away, the veteran candidate will need to do some hard work to put the episode behind him. But the controversy was fuelled as the former US vice president wagged his finger at a journalist who questioned his reaction to the octogenarian in Iowa last week in the interview.
National Public Radio reporter Rachel Martin brought up a comparison with President Donald Trump while asking Biden’s reaction to Merle Gorman, 83, at the interactive session in New Hampton, and it turned the Democrat off. “Don’t compare me to Donald Trump,” he hit back at Martin, adding that Trump makes fun of people and belittles them which he doesn’t. On the question of calling a voter “liar”, Biden said he was just abiding by the facts.
“He's lying! He's lying. You acknowledge what he said wasn't even true. None of the mainstream media believes any of that was true,” the 76-year-old said.
Joe Biden loses cool when asked about Hunter
Gorman, a former serviceman who had served in the US Marine Corp and is also a retired farmer, had accused Biden of selling access to the presidency by sending son Hunter to Ukraine to work for a gas company Burisma Holdings. Both Joe and Hunter were accused by Trump of corruption. However, a whistleblower complaint against Trump accusing him of trying to influence Ukraine to derail the senior Biden’s electoral campaign saw an impeachment inquiry starting against him.
Biden was upset with Gorman’s observation and called him a “damn liar”.
Biden also not amused when called 'too old'
Martin also spoke to Biden about him asking Gorman for doing push-ups and taking an IQ test. The Democratic candidate said this when Gorman called him “too old” and he could not vote for somebody as old. Biden said he invited the voter to undertake the physical and mental tests as a joke. But when the interviewer compared his behavior with that of Trump who is also seen joking with people often, Biden protested with his right index finger raised.
The former Delaware senator denied it when Martin told him that other voters present at the town hall talks in New Hampton were disappointed with his way of talking. The reporter then said: “Yes, they did. They said to me, the woman you met at the end, 94-year-old Mary, said to me, "I was so disappointed in him." This is a direct quote: "That is not the Joe I know. He sounded like Donald Trump in that clip".”
Gorman told The New York Post on Thursday, December 5: “I'm positive 90% of the people there didn't know about his son working on the board in Ukraine. I wanted it brought out there.”
“Trump has been messing around in Ukraine, he's [got] no backbone... but you, on the other hand, sent your son over there, gave him a job working with a gas company, he had no experience with gas or nothing, in order to get access for the president,” Gorman said.
'You're selling access to the president just like he [Trump] does.”
In the video of the footage that has gone viral ever since, Biden was seen walking across the floor angrily and then went up to the elderly voter to confront him, saying: “You’re a damn liar, man”.
Even as Biden tried to defend his act in New Hampton, Martin said his tone didn't go down well with the people.