BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) – The famously free-wheeling Joe Biden found himself in an unaccustomed situation Thursday: asked to comment on a White House gaffe that wasn't his own.
The vice president was asked by CNN what he thought of President Obama's unguarded moment earlier this week, when he was caught calling entertainer Kanye West a "jackass" for grabbing the microphone from teenage singer Taylor Swift at MTV's Video Music Awards earlier in the week.
Biden responded cautiously. "I honestly didn't know that. I have no comment on that," he told CNN's Chris Lawrence, adding with a laugh: "For someone who occasionally says things that I shouldn't say, I have no comment."
How does it feel to be on the observing end of an administration verbal slip? "Well first of all, (Obama) very seldom has a slip of the tongue," said Biden. "But I really can't comment. I truly don't know the incident. I heard it for the first time from you."
Biden is in Iraq this week, his third visit to that nation so far this year.
From CNN Politics
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Oh my goodness. When will the press grow up. These are very important times for our country. Tell the TRUTH about pertinent stories !! Please stop giving any merit to the idiots and the greedy who control them. Is the only place I can see honest reporting and journalism MSNBC ?
"heard it from you for the first time" My god what a liar.
No comment is fine, to say "I don't want to talk about it" whatever, again fine.
But to claim you haven't heard about it you are either lying (he is) or has been stuck in a cabin with no contact to the outside world. That was all over the news Joe, alseep at the wheel Joe?
Obama was correct in his assessment.
Yep, this is news.
The health insurance industry is busy killing real healthcare reform, and CNN is letting it happen by distracting us with this crap.
Picket CNN and FoxNews for their efforts to kill healthcare reform.
I say he called it as he saw it, a spade is a spade (no pun intended) He is human and to have an opinion is just that, an opinion. He's the President, not Superman.
As much as I dislike the choice word used, facts are, he spoke as a true leader in tune with it's people. What West did to Swift was awful, and he has been called out on it plain and simple. Humanity in unity.
Can't fault the president for being honest. Did anyone find Kanye's behavior to be anything other than unacceptable?
Oh no, the president used a potty word!!! ALERT THE PRESSES, HE MIGHT BE MORTAL.
Get over it
C'mon Joe, you are the Master. He learned from you!.
Gosh Obama could have a 'slip', but the Senator couldn't?
How can something truly be called a gaffe if it was "off-the-record" and it was a moron reporter who leaked the comment?
Obama does not need to apologize to Kanye. He was acting like something worse than that that nite. Maybe this will get Kanye to calm the hell down and stop thinking that he has to be the center of attention all the time.
who cares about the slip, he's going to iraq, get over it. The president is human too.
It's a miracle!
You know that a comment that like is what makes this president so much like the people whom he presides over. It makes him more human.
So everyone else can say the exact same thing and it is no big deal? Please, the man was having a private conversation, a hack with a cell phone and twitter account made it world news. What if someone followed YOU around all day and twittered snippets of your conversations?
I agree with Obama's comments on Kanye West 100%. Well done!
President Obama was just stating a FACT!
Obama's wasn't a verbal slip. It was an honest, and CORRECT answer. One of the only honest and correct moments of this administration. Biden is a disaster, and Obama's policies are worst.
It wasn't a slip of the tongue. It was Obama telling it like it is. No shame in that.
Why should he comment...it was the unvarnished truth....
Why are they calling it a verbal slip? Obama was right. If anyone is offended by it, then they should come back down to reality and get off their high-horse. Calling this a verbal slip is beyond pathetic.
That wouldn't have gotten out if they didn't want it to get out. There are no "off the record" comments.
This way, regular folks can say, yeah, Obama has some good manners and good sense, while at the same time he is covered with the thug thizzle street cred by not coming out publicly against Kanye.
Oh that's too bad, news media!!!!!!!!!!!!
I still don't understand why anyone in the media would even ask Obama his thoughts on the VMA incident. Aren't there more pertinent questions to ask?
Ha! I love joe biden.