--- title: Joe Biden Says 'Poor Kids Are Just as Bright' as 'White Kids' description: Joe Biden told a group of mostly Asian and Hispanic voters Wednesday that "poor kids are just as bright" as white children in Des Moines. canonical: https://time.com/5648481/joe-biden-poor-kids-white-kids/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-08-09T11:34:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T00:12:13.465Z article:section: Politics og:title: Joe Biden Says 'Poor Kids Are Just as Bright' as 'White Kids' at Event for Asian and Hispanic Voters og:description: The former vice president is known for verbal gaffes og:url: https://time.com/5648481/joe-biden-poor-kids-white-kids/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec496fa0bf05ad4a/698a012222fb851770e29a8e/joe-biden-gaffe.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Presidential Candidates Hit The Soapbox At The Iowa State Fair og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Joe Biden Says 'Poor Kids Are Just as Bright' as 'White Kids' at Event for Asian and Hispanic Voters twitter:description: The former vice president is known for verbal gaffes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec496fa0bf05ad4a/698a012222fb851770e29a8e/joe-biden-gaffe.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Joe Biden Says 'Poor Kids Are Just as Bright' as 'White Kids' at Event for Asian and Hispanic Voters > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=08b5bb9b-6c21-4201-9237-94579389792b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Emma Kinery / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Emma Kinery / Bloomberg Contributor Aug 9, 2019 11:34 AM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Iowa State Fair August 08, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. On Wednesday Biden told voters at a campaign event "poor kids are just as smart as white kids." Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Iowa State Fair August 08, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. On Wednesday Biden told voters at a campaign event "poor kids are just as smart as white kids."Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Emma Kinery / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Emma Kinery / Bloomberg Contributor Aug 9, 2019 11:34 AM UTC Joe Biden told a group of mostly Asian and Hispanic voters Wednesday that “poor kids are just as bright” as white children. The former vice president, who is known for verbal gaffes, made the remarks to the Asian & Latino Coalition in Des Moines, Iowa, where he is on a four-day campaign swing for the Democratic presidential nomination. “We should challenge students in these schools and have advanced placement programs in these schools,” Biden said. “We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids.” He quickly added, “Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids, no I really mean it, but think how we think about it.” “We think how we’re going to dumb it down. They can do anything anybody else can do given a shot.” Biden has been criticized for his tendency to say awkward, sometimes surprising, things. When his future boss, Barack Obama, was running for president, Biden once remarked that Obama was “clean” and “articulate,” a remark that raised eyebrows. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5648481/joe-biden-poor-kids-white-kids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5648481/joe-biden-poor-kids-white-kids/"},"headline":"Joe Biden Says 'Poor Kids Are Just as Bright' as 'White Kids' at Event for Asian and Hispanic Voters","datePublished":"2019-08-09T11:34:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T00:12:13.465Z","description":"The former vice president is known for verbal gaffes","url":"https://time.com/5648481/joe-biden-poor-kids-white-kids/","keywords":["2020 Election","Bloomberg","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec496fa0bf05ad4a/698a012222fb851770e29a8e/joe-biden-gaffe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Emma Kinery / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec496fa0bf05ad4a/698a012222fb851770e29a8e/joe-biden-gaffe.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presidential Candidates Hit The Soapbox At The Iowa State Fair","caption":"Presidential Candidates Hit The Soapbox At The Iowa State Fair","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-election/","name":"2020 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5648481/joe-biden-poor-kids-white-kids/","name":"Joe Biden Says 'Poor Kids Are Just as Bright' as 'White Kids' at Event for Asian and Hispanic Voters"}}]}] ```