DES MOINES, Iowa (ChurchMilitant.com) - Joe Biden, former vice president, 2020 Democrat presidential candidate and self-identified Catholic, has committed a slew of embarrassing gaffes on the campaign trail recently.
There have been so many, in fact, that his handlers have gone into high gear defending him publicly but asking privately if he's just "too gaffe-prone" to be president.
The latest blunder involved a question about gender identity, asked by Katie Moon, a Turning Point USA activist.
"How many genders are there?" she asked the 76-year-old Democrat candidate.
According to a video of the encounter, Biden was caught off guard by the question, but managed to regain equilibrium enough to conclude, "There are at least three."
My team just forwarded this video to me
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 9, 2019
Watch former Vice President Biden forcefully grab one of our young field staffers at yesterday’s Iowa State Fair after she asked him how many genders there are pic.twitter.com/1qmpJxJlzO
Moon then posed a follow-up question to Biden: "What are they?"
Biden didn't answer, instead saying, "Don't play games with me, kid."
He then leaned in, grabbed her arm, and said, "By the way, the first one to come out for marriage was me," before moving on to socialize with other people at the fair.
Biden's remark was intended to signal his comparatively early support of same-sex marriage.
Indeed, Biden "came out" in support of same-sex marriage in 2012 — even before then-President Barack Obama — during an appearance on Meet the Press, telling the host that he was "absolutely comfortable with ... men marrying men, women marrying women."
Biden attributed his conversion to acceptance of same-sex marriage to the then-popular NBC sitcom Will & Grace, which ran from 1998 to 2006. The Will & Grace episodes revolved around four professional 20–30-year-olds who share a Manhattan apartment with special attention paid to their lifestyle themes of sex, dating and divorce.
Biden's position on abortion also throws his Catholicism into question — although his views have changed significantly over the years.
In 1974, he famously said, "When it comes to issues like abortion, amnesty, and acid, I'm about as liberal as your grandmother."
Now Biden aligns himself with other Democrat candidates who seem to vie with each other on who can proclaim the most radical abortion stance.
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia has strong words about U.S. "Catholic" politicians who support abortion.
In comments published on the archdiocese of Philadelphia's website, he wrote, "The unborn child means exactly zero in the calculus of power for Democratic Party leaders, and the right to an abortion, once described as a tragic necessity, is now a perverse kind of 'sacrament most holy.'"
Joe Biden, yesterday, said Democrats choose “truth over facts”
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 10, 2019
That’s true.
They choose “their” truths:
The world will end in 12 years
Illegal aliens aid the economy
Socialism works
There’s more than 2 genders
That unborn children aren’t people
Their “truth” is dangerous.
Archbishop Chaput added that the apparent "price" for Catholics to join the ruling class has meant "the transfer of our real loyalties and convictions from the old Church of our baptism to the new 'Church' of our ambitions and appetites."
Referring by name to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), as well as Biden, the archbishop continued, "These are among the politicians who have turned their backs on their faith, committing what Pope Benedict XVI called a 'silent apostasy.'"
At the Iowa State Fair, Biden's exchange with the young woman didn't include mere words.
According to Moon's account, after Biden demanded that she not "play games" with him, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him for the last word.
"I decided to try to remove myself from the situation, but he reached out and grabbed my arm — pretty aggressively — to get my attention again," she said, "but I'm not even quite sure why he decided to grab my arm."
The law defines his actions are assault and battery:
The law defines assault and battery as an unwanted touching that is done in a rude or angry manner. It can be as simple as shoving someone, blocking their way, spitting on them, grabbing someone's arm, throwing something (liquid or otherwise) at them, or even grabbing something out of their hand. [Emphasis added]
The most recent Vatican statement on gender ideology categorically rejects Biden's claim about three genders.
Titled "Male and Female He Created Them: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education," the document states that identifying beyond man or woman is "nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants."
Similar to the Vatican's stance on homosexuality, this argument insinuates that non-binary and transgender individuals are acting on impulses that should instead be perceived as challenges to "overcome."
According to one source, Biden is "well-positioned to energize liberal Catholics and at least blunt Trump's appeal with conservative-leaning white Catholics."
Based on Biden's treatment of women, his position on same-sex marriage and on abortion, gaining support from conservative-leaning Catholics of any demographic is not a given.
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