Obama Defends Biden On ‘Chains’ Remark

President Barack Obama
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President Obama defended Joe Biden’s remarks in North Carolina yesterday, in which the vice president said that Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and the GOP would “put y’all back in chains,” by saying they were taken out of context.

“Joe Biden has been an outstanding vice president,” Obama told PEOPLE magazine on Wednesday.

He said Biden’s words needed to be considered in context; that he was only saying “you, consumers, the American people, will be a lot worse off if we repeal these [Wall Street reform] laws as the other side is suggesting.”

“In no sense was he trying to connote something other than that,” Obama added. 

Pressed to say whether Biden’s wording was unfortunate or something he’s okay with, the president sighed. “The truth is that during the course of these campaigns, folks like to get obsessed with how something was phrased even if everybody personally understands that’s not how it was meant,” Obama said. “That’s sort of the nature of modern campaigns and modern coverage of campaigns. But I tell you, when I’m traveling around Iowa, that’s not what’s on people’s minds.”

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