CNN Asks Jill Biden About Biden Gaffes. She Pushes Back: ‘You Cannot Even Say The Word Gaffe’ After Trump

 During an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper, former Second Lady Jill Biden dismissed the idea that her husband, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, should be at all subject to criticism for any gaffes because President Donald Trump is in office.

“Your husband has been known to make the occasional gaffe,” said Tapper, appearing to start a question before Biden interrupted him by remarking “you can’t even go there.”

“After Donald Trump, you cannot even say the word ‘gaffe,’” she said.

Tapper replied: “I can’t even say the word ‘gaffe?’”

“Nope, done. It’s gone,” Biden said in response, remarking again that the gaffe issue is “so over” after getting pressed by Tapper.

Over the course of the last year, former Vice President Joe Biden has drawn attention to himself for making gaffes, questionable remarks, or otherwise false statements.

In an infamous incident earlier this year, Biden seemingly forgot the words to the Declaration of Independence, saying “We hold these truths to be self-evident, [that] all men and women are created by—you know, you know, the thing.” The relevant text of the declaration reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”

During the Democratic primary season last year, Biden was fact-checked by The Washington Post for sharing a war story — one in which Biden said that he traveled to Afghanistan to pin a medal on a soldier who didn’t believe he was deserving of one — that didn’t happen as he had repeatedly described it.

The Washington Post reported:

[A]lmost every detail in the story appears to be incorrect. Based on interviews with more than a dozen U.S. troops, their commanders and Biden campaign officials, it appears as though the former vice president has jumbled elements of at least three actual events into one story of bravery, compassion and regret that never happened.

Biden visited Konar province in 2008 as a U.S. senator, not as vice president. The service member who performed the celebrated rescue that Biden described was a 20-year-old Army specialist, not a much older Navy captain. And that soldier, Kyle J. White, never had a Silver Star, or any other medal, pinned on him by Biden. At a White House ceremony six years after Biden’s visit, White stood at attention as President Barack Obama placed a Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, around his neck.

The upshot: In the space of three minutes, Biden got the time period, the location, the heroic act, the type of medal, the military branch and the rank of the recipient wrong, as well as his own role in the ceremony.

Biden later defended himself, claiming that he accurately delivered the “essence” of the story and that the “central point” of his story was “absolutely correct.”