One of former Vice President Joe Biden’s earliest gaffes was during a 1974 discussion on campaign finance where he admittedly tried to “prostitute” himself to big donors during his first run for U.S. Senate but failed to get a John because he was too young.
His youth, however, was what enabled Biden to raise enough money to win, he explained.
“I’m like the token black or the token woman,” Biden said. “I was the token young person.”
Biden’s comments came during an appearance on The Advocates, a weekly debate program that aired on PBS in the 1970s. Biden, then in his second year as a U.S. senator, was invited to argue in favor of public funding for political campaigns and contribution limits for individuals.
Biden argued the political system was inherently corrupt because it forced candidates to go to the “people who have money,” and “they always want something.” He called it the “most degrading experience in the world.”
“You run the risk of deciding whether or not you’re going to prostitute yourself to give the answer you know they want to hear in order to get funded to run for that office,” Biden testified during the program.
Biden admits he decided to “prostitute” himself, but was denied because of his age.
“I went to the big guys for the money,” Biden said. “I was ready to prostitute myself in the manner in which I talk about it, but what happened was they said, ‘Come back when you’re 40, son.'”
“So I had to go out, I had to go out to a number of small contributors,” he said.
Biden goes on to say his ability to raise money despite his rejection from big donors—he said he raised $276,000—was due to his unique identity as a young person.
“I’m a 29-year-old oddball,” he said. “The only reason I was able to raise the money is that I was able to have a national constituency to run for office, because I was 29.”
“I’m like the token black or the token woman,” Biden said. “I was the token young person.”
Continue to the next page for the biggest gaffes of Biden’s career.
