Joe Biden Says He Was Vice President ‘During the Pandemic’

President Joe Biden’s latest blunder came on Sunday when he claimed that he was vice president during the pandemic and that former President Barack Obama sent him to Detroit, Michigan, to “help fix it.”

Biden’s factually false comment came during a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) dinner in Detroit, the Daily Beast reported.

BIDEN: "When I was vice president, things were kinda bad during the pandemic…"

(Biden was not vice president during the pandemic) pic.twitter.com/McZXfjgr2u

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 20, 2024

“And when I was vice president, things were kinda bad during the pandemic, and what happened was Barack said to me, ‘Go to Detroit and help fix it!’” Biden told attendees, per a viral video from the event.

Biden left the vice presidency in January 2017, more than three years before the coronavirus pandemic forced then-President Donald Trump to declare a national emergency in March 2020. Former Vice President Mike Pence was actually serving as the vice president during the pandemic.

The gaffe comes as the latest Harvard-Harris poll shows that more than three in five voters think Biden’s “public lapses” are becoming more frequent.

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In the poll published Monday, 63 percent of voters, including nearly half of Democrats, said that Biden’s “lapses” are happening more often. Nearly eight in ten Republicans and almost two in three independents believe this to be the case.

Conversely, 37 percent of respondents — 55 percent of Democrats, 21 percent of Republicans, and 35 percent of independents — think that Biden’s lapses are becoming less frequent.

The survey also asked respondents, “Is electing a President who raises questions about age, failing memory or lapsed concentration potentially dangerous for the country or are such fears being overblown politically?”

A majority of 59 percent, including most Republicans and independents, said it would be “dangerous,” while 41 percent, including most Democrats, said those “fears are being overblown politically.”

The poll sampled 1,660 registered voters on May 15 and 16. The margin of error is ± two percentage points.