© REUTERS/Mike Blake
Rather than the heartfelt moment he had perhaps intended, the mimicry seemingly missed the mark at first and confused both the audience and the onlinecommentariat, rather than winning them over.
"My wife and I have a call list of somewhere between 20 and 100 people," he said. "I give them my personal phone number." Biden then appeared to mimic the stuttering of a child asking the former vice president for help.
"They keep in touch with me. A little kid who says, 'I, I, I, I, I can't talk. What do I do?'" Biden said.
One of his notable political opponents was quick off the mark in deriding Biden.
"I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I hhhave absolutely no idea what Biden is talking about. #DemDebate," former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted, drawing intense criticism online. Sanders later deleted the mocking post and issued an apology after Biden himself reminded her that he had overcome a stutter in his own childhood.
While many used Huckabee Sanders' tweet to deflect from the odd decision to impersonate stuttering without first reminding people of his own childhood struggles, Biden's detractors will likely add it to the list of his public gaffes while on the 2020 campaign trail.
From incorrectly recalling which state he just gave a speech in to interrupting himself during a previous televised debate when he lost his train of thought ("So there's a, there's — my time up? I guess not. I guess it is,") Biden has been prone to making unexpected errors.
From fumbling his words time and again to mixing up countries, cities and dates - he recently confused Ukraine and Afghanistan - Biden has provided plenty of fodder for his political opponents. Despite making sometimes bizarre asides like referencing his hairy legs while talking about children, and losing his trail of thought, Biden remains one of the Democratic frontrunners.
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