On the campaign trail at an under-construction auto plant near Detroit on Tuesday, Joe Biden put it very bluntly to a union worker challenging him on the Second Amendment: “You’re full of shit,” Biden said.
The interaction caught on video shows the former vice president stumping on the day of the Democratic primary in Michigan, where there are more delegates up for grabs than in any of Tuesday’s five other contests.
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“You are actively trying to diminish our Second Amendment rights and take away our guns,” one of the workers can be heard telling Biden in the video making the rounds on Twitter.
“You’re full of shit,” Biden responds. One of his aides appears to try to pull the candidate away from the crowd. He turns to her and says, “No, shush, shush.”
“I support the Second Amendment,” Biden says. “I’m not taking your gun away at all.”
Biden clarified, after being pressed by the worker. “We’re going to take your AR-14s,” he said, incorrectly referring to the AR-15, the gun used in several recent high-profile mass shootings, including the school massacres in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida.
“Do you need a hundred rounds?! Do you need a hundred rounds?!” Biden yelled at the worker.
“There are more handguns in the United States than there are what you call ‘assault rifles,’” the worker said. “Why are you advocating for assault rifles when people are dying by handguns?”
At that question, Biden was ushered away by his staff.
Biden has advocated for a federal voluntary buyback program for assault weapons. People who own AR-15s or guns like them, under his plan, could either sell them back to the government or register them under the National Firearms Act.
Cover: Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Miss., Sunday, March 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
