Vice President Joe Biden has been busy adding to his collection of gaffes lately.
At a gun-control press conference yesterday with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Vice President Joe Biden said, "Think about what happened out in – when Gabby Giffords, my good friend, was shot and mortally wounded."
The phrase "mortally wounded" usually means killed. Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was critically injured by a gunshot to the head in 2011, but she survived.
Earlier this week, Biden encountered two nuns outside of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican after he attended the Inauguration Mass of Pope Francis. Biden somehow divined from the nun's smiles that they agreed with his views on immigration and gun control.
"It translates at home with the simple things like making sure we fix the broken immigration system, making sure we make our neighborhoods safer by having rational gun safety and international relations, reaching out and have war as the last option to protect our interests and so it was an exciting time. It gave me a lot of hope and, again, I'll close where I began. Just look at the expression in the faces of those two nuns. You can tell they share my view," he said.
During an online town hall on February 19, Biden said, "If you want to protect yourself, get a double-barrel shotgun, just fire two blasts outside the house."
He didn't explain how a two-shot shotgun could be used as a defensive weapon after firing both shots.
Biden followed that with more advice in an interview with Field and Stream magazine, advising gun owners to "just fire the shotgun through the door."
Biden brought his unique view of the world to more of Europe, last month.
In London on February 5, Biden said the U.S. and Britain have an "open relationship."
After attending a U.K. national security council meeting he stated, "I spent half my life on our national security council." Biden is 70. He has been on the U.S. National Security Council for four years.
Biden mistook Portugal for Poland in a statement later corrected on the official White House transcript. Referring to the European debt crisis, he spoke of, "Greece, Ireland, Poland, Spain and Italy." Poland is not suffering a debt crisis and is not even a member of the Eurozone.
In Munich, Biden mixed up former U.S. senators Sam Nunn and Richard "Dick" Lugar. Again, the official White House transcript fixed the error.
Also in Munich, Biden said that commander-in-chief and President Barack Obama does not want to go to Iraq and Afghanistan.
See Biden's Best:
"I have traveled over 640,000 miles since I've been vice president, and most of the time the president sends me to places that he doesn't want to go. (Laughter.) So I've spent an awful lot of time with McCain and others in Afghanistan and Iraq, and so it's nice to be here in Germany," he quipped.
Americans paid quite a price for Biden's trip to deliver misstatements, literally. A government document shows Biden's stay at the five-star Hotel Intercontinental Paris Le Grand cost taxpayers $585,000.50. He stayed there one night.
See the shotgun comment:
At the Iowa State Society inauguration ball on January 19, Biden declared, "I'm proud to be president of the United States." He corrected himself after the audience began to laugh, saying, "I'm proud to be vice president of the United States. And I'm prouder to be Barack Obama, President Barack Obama's vice president," he confusingly added.
Biden's gaffes through the years include many memorable turns of phrase.
August 22, 2012: "Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately."
August 14, 2012 (to a largely African-American audience): "Look at what they [Republicans] value, and look at their budget. And look what they're proposing. [Romney] said in the first 100 days, he's going to let the big banks write their own rules – unchain Wall Street. They're going to put y'all back in chains."
May 16, 2012: "My mother believed and my father believed that if I wanted to be president of the United States, I could be vice president!"
April 26, 2012: "I promise you, the president has a big stick. I promise you."
March 23, 2010 (to President Obama, during the health care signing ceremony): "This is a big f***ing deal!"
March 17, 2010: "His mom lived in Long Island for 10 years or so. God rest her soul. And- although, she's – wait – your mom's still – your mom's still alive. Your dad passed. God bless her soul."
February 6, 2009: "If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there's still a 30 percent chance we're going to get it wrong."
January 20, 2009 (referring to Justice John Paul Stevens): "Jill and I had the great honor of standing on that stage, looking across at one of the great justices, Justice Stewart."
October 15, 2008: "...a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs."
September 22, 2008: "When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened." (The market crashed in 1929, before FDR was president)
September 12, 2008 (to wheelchair-bound Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham): "Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see ya."
September 10, 2008: "Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me."
August 23, 2008: "A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next president of the United States — Barack America!"
January 31, 2007: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."
June, 2006: "You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.... I'm not joking."