- Joe Biden was in Florida on Tuesday to campaign on behalf of Democrat candidates ahead of the November 8 midterms
- Biden, addressing a series of three gatherings in the state, mangled his speech to a degree remarkable even for him
- The 79-year-old called Representative Wasserman Schultz 'senator' and said that his son Beau died in Iraq when he passed away in a Maryland hospital
- Biden also claimed that the United States has 'the lowest inflation rate of almost any major country in the world': among the G7, only Italy and the UK are worse
Joe Biden on Tuesday night delivered a remarkably gaffe-filled speech in
Florida: mixing up representative and senator, claiming the United States has among the lowest
inflation in the world and saying his son Beau died in Iraq.
The president was campaigning in three different locations across the state and
intended to trumpet his triumphs.
Instead, he baffled listeners with a bizarre series of claims.
Speaking alongside Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is hoping to get re-elected in Florida's 23rd district, in greater Miami, Biden mistakenly referred to her as a senator.
'I don't have a greater friend in the United States Senate,' he said.
'And I didn't have a greater friend as vice president, nor as president.
'So Debbie, thank you, kiddo.'
In Hallandale Beach, a Miami suburb 20 miles north of downtown, he claimed that the United States has low inflation - and managed to say once again that his son Beau died in Iraq.
Beau Biden, who served as
Delaware's attorney general and in the Delaware Army National Guard in the Iraq War, died at age 46 in 2015 from brain cancer.
'Inflation is a worldwide problem right now because of a war in Iraq and the impact on oil, and what Russia is doing — I mean, excuse me, the war in Ukraine,' said Biden on Tuesday.
'And — I'm thinking of Iraq because that's where my son died. The — because he died.
'But the point is that there — you know, that's why it's up.
'We have the lowest inflation rate of almost any major country in the world. We've done a lot to try to take it under control.'
Inflation in the U.S. as measured by the Consumer Price Index is currently at 8.2 percent, for September's data.
Among G7 countries, only Italy and the United Kingdom have worse inflation according to the OECD's latest data, from August.
The U.S. is at 8.26 percent, with Italy at 8.37 and the U.K. at 8.6 percent.
Japan, France, Canada, and Germany are all out-performing the U.S. - in Canada, inflation was 7.1 percent, while in France it was 5.91, and in Japan a mere 3 percent.