Note to Joe Biden: When you’re talking face to face with a voter, maybe it’s not the best idea to call her a “lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
At a New Hampshire town hall over the weekend, a college student asked Biden why he came in fourth place in the Iowa caucuses and why anyone should trust his claim that he can turn his flagging campaign around. Biden asked the college girl: “You even been to a caucus?” When the girl nodded yes, Biden snapped, saying: “No you haven’t. You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
Yes, the 77-year-old one-time front runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination called a young girl — and, more importantly, a supporter and a voter — a “lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
The woman, Madison Moore, a 21-year-old economics student at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, said she didn’t take the remark as a “joke,” saying those who dismissed it as such is “kind of insulting.”
“It was kind of humiliating to be called a liar on national TV by the former vice president,” Moore said, The Daily Mail reported. “Instead of answering that question straightforward, his immediate response was to attempt to invalidate me by exposing my inexperience.”
“He has been performing extremely poorly in this race and the fact that he couldn’t just straight answer my question without bullying or intimidating just exacerbates that fact,” Moore said. “I am 21-year old college student, like what the hell do I know? Who cares who I am or my experience, just answer the damn question.”
Moore had warned Biden that her question was “kind of mean.”
“So you’re arguably the candidate with the greatest advantage in this race,” Moore said. “How do you explain the performance in Iowa and why should the voters believe that you can win the national election?”
Biden, stepping away, said: “It’s a good question. Number One – Iowa is a Democratic caucus. You ever been to a caucus?” Biden asked Moore. She nodded yes, then Biden said: “No you haven’t. You’ve a lying dog-faced pony soldier.” There were a few laughs at the comment.
“Moore later explained she only nodded her head yes because she got nervous, but said she felt whether she had been to a caucus or not was irrelevant,” The Mail wrote.
As as for Biden’s quip, his campaign staff said the line was taken from a scene in a John Wayne movie, where a Native American chief refers to Wayne as a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier.”
Another note to Biden: Pulling lines out of John Wayne movies is not likely to win over young voters.
