Biden Whisked Away by Handlers after 'Gaffe' on Abortion
Claims women should be able to 'choose to abort a child'
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Joe Biden was swiftly whisked away by his handlers after he went off-script to drop an embarrassing "gaffe" about abortion while speaking to reporters.
While weighing in on the abortion debate Tuesday, Biden referred to the right to “abort a child.”
Biden's mangled message had staffers rushing in to end his wandering comments to the press.
Critics seized on the decidedly off-message word choice, with a video of his flub quickly going viral on social media.
Biden made the gaffe while speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs, Maryland, on Tuesday morning.
The flub came a day after Politico published a leaked draft of an upcoming Supreme Court decision that, if delivered, would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case legalizing abortion.
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“The idea that we’re gonna make a judgment that is going to say that no one can make the judgment to choose to abort a child based on a decision by the Supreme Court I think goes way overboard,” Biden said.
He was then cut off as his aides stepped in and ushered him away.
WATCH:
BIDEN: "The idea that we're gonna make a judgment that is going to say that no one can make the judgment to choose to abort a child based on a decision by the Supreme Court I think goes way overboard." pic.twitter.com/Kxr2D537LZ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 3, 2022
Anti-abortion activists view fetuses as unborn children, but the pro-abortion rights side of the polarizing debate does not.
The draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, written by Justice Samuel Alito and reportedly signed by four conservative justices, would repeal the national right to abortion and leave it to states to make their own laws governing the procedure.
The draft was leaked to Politico Monday night, in an unprecedented event that prompted Chief Justice John Roberts to call for an investigation.
It is unclear when the decision will be officially released.
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George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley called attention to the flip on Twitter.
“Biden’s defense of ‘aborting babies’ is not exactly how the Democrats want to frame the issue,” Turley tweeted.
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) mocked Biden for his word choice.
“Joe Biden is so aloof that he screwed up his Leftist talking point and said ‘abort a child’ not a clump of cells or any other term the Left wants to try and use to make abortion seem less evil,” Boebert tweeted.
