Joe Biden baffles with promise to appoint 'first African-American woman' to Senate

close

Video

Biden banks on SC as Bernie takes lead in new Fox News national poll

Sanders knocks Biden out of first place for the first time in Fox News' national 2020 primary poll; Ellison Barber reports from the campaign trail.

Former Vice President Joe Biden caused some confusion on Friday when he told a crowd that he was looking forward to appointing the first African-American woman to the U.S. Senate.

“I’m looking forward to appointing the first African-American woman to the United States Senate," Biden, a former U.S. senator, said. Senators are only appointed by state governors in special cases. Otherwise, they're chosen by voters in statewide elections.

Biden could have been referring to Supreme Court nominations, which go to the U.S. Senate for confirmation. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., an African-American woman, would presumably help confirm that nominee as she serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Harris also competed against Biden for the 2020 Democratic nomination before dropping out of the race at the end of last year.

BIDEN ODDLY SUGGESTS '150 MILLION' PEOPLE KILLED BY GUNS SINCE 2007

The first African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Senate was Democrat Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois. When Harris was still in the race, Biden touted Braun's support, saying he received the backing of "the only African-Ameriacan woman that's ever been elected to the U.S. Senate."

He said that while sharing a debate stage with Harris. “Nope. That’s not true. The other one is here," she said.

Biden's campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.

This was just the latest slip-up in a long line of gaffes that Biden has committed during the 2020 race. Biden previously made another Senate-related gaffe, asking for people to vote him back into the chamber.

"My name is Joe Biden. I'm a Democratic candidate for the United States Senate," he said at a Democratic Party dinner on Monday. During Tuesday's debate, Biden also puzzlingly suggested that 150 million gun deaths had occurred since 2007. Biden's campaign reportedly clarified that he meant 150,000.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Biden's latest gaffe came just before Saturday's primary in South Carolina, where Biden needs to pull out a victory after losing the first three contests in the season.

Biden also appeared to fabricate a war story, inaccurately stated the decade when Robert F. Kenndy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated, said he preferred "truth over facts," and misidentified New Hampshire as Vermont while campaigning in the early primary state.