Donald Trump on Monday night mocked his Democrat rival Joe Biden for stating he was ‘running for Senate’ – using the momentary lapse as more evidence of his claim that Biden is unfit for office.
Trump, 74, has made the age and frequent gaffes of Biden, 77, a recurrent line of attack.
On Monday, campaigning in Toledo, Ohio, Biden provided the president with yet more fodder. Biden addressed United Auto Workers who represent a local General Motors powertrain plant.
The former vice president spoke in a parking lot with about 30 American-made cars and trucks arrayed nearby.
‘You know, we have to come together. That’s why I’m running. I’m running as a proud Democrat for the Senate, when I ran as a proud Democrat for vice president, and I’m running as a proud Democrat for president,’ Biden said.
‘But I promise you this, I will govern as an American president.’
Joe Biden was campaigning in Toledo, Ohio on Monday when he made the slip
Donald Trump, on stage in Florida on Monday night, was quick to capitalize on the mistake
The former vice president was a longtime senator from Delaware.
Biden appeared to make another gaffe on the tarmac, appearing to forget Utah Senator Mitt Romney’s name.
‘I got in trouble when we were running against that senator who was a Mormon, the governor,’ he said.
Romney was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.
Trump seized up on it, tweeting: ‘Biden losing big in Florida. Only Fake Polls show otherwise! Bad for Healthcare. Thinks he’s running for the Senate. Forgot Mitt Romney’s name, and where he was!
”I’m running as a proud Democrat, for the Senate’. Sleepy Joe Biden today. It’s only going to get worse. It is not sustainable for our County – China will own us!!!!’
The president was in Sanford, Florida on Monday night and repeated his joke.
‘Sleepy Joe Biden, not a nice guy, by the way. He had a very bad day today,’ Trump said.
‘If I ever had a day like he had today, they’d say: ‘It’s over. It’s over.’
‘He forgot Mitt Romney’s name. He didn’t know what state he was in. And he said today he’s a proud Democrat running for the US Senate.’
Trump joked: ‘Could you imagine if I did that? ‘Great to be with you. It’s great to be a wonderful developer from New York.’ They’d say: ‘he’s out of here. Get him out.”
Biden ‘has got a lot of bad days coming,’ Trump said.
‘The one thing I know for sure, President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia, Kim Jong Un – they are 100 per cent sharp.
‘We have someone running who is not 100 per cent, he’s not 80 per cent, he’s not 60 per cent.’
Trump was back on the campaign trail on Monday, leaving the White House for the first time
Biden was in Toledo, Ohio, and then Cincinnati to campaign
The Biden campaign has increased advertising in Ohio lately, even as Trump has scaled back his efforts in the state and elsewhere. Biden’s perceived increases in support have largely come as the president has seen his backing slip in cities – but he is looking to cancel that out by further expanding his already strong support among voters in rural areas.
‘We are thrilled to see Joe Biden wasting a valuable day on the campaign trail visiting a state he cannot win,’ Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh said Monday.
Biden argued that Trump has mishandled the coronavirus pandemic, exacerbating the resulting economic fallout. He said the Trump administration ‘squandered’ the strong economy it inherited from the Obama White House four years ago, and he promised to create new, high-paying union jobs once the country gets the virus under control.
‘He turned his back on you. I promise you, I will never do that,’ Biden told the crowd in Toledo.
In Cincinnati, Biden seized on Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis, saying the president’s ‘reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis’ has been ‘unconscionable.’
‘The longer Donald Trump is president,’ Biden added, ‘the more reckless he gets.’