Fear Mongering VP Joe Biden & Swine Flu … Tells Family: “Stay Off Planes & Subways” … Open Mouth, Insert Swine

Biden would avoid subways, planes after swine flu outbreak. Barack Obama is kind of wishing Biden would avoid The White House. It was only a matter of time before Joe “Gaffe” Biden stuck his foot in his mouth.

Fresh out of the Obama witness protection program … Vice President Joe Biden causes quite a panic as he tell his family members not to use subways  or taking commercial flights in the U.S. and implied schools should be shuttered as the swine flu outbreak spread to 16 states. This week it is the VP’s turn to misspeak.

The uproar began when Biden appeared on NBC’s “Today” show and said he would advise against riding the subway or taking commercial flights and implied schools should be shuttered amid confirmation of the first swine-flu relation death in the U.S.

“I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” Biden said when Matt Lauer asked whether he would advise family members to use public transportation.

“I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. It’s not that it’s going to Mexico, it’s you’re in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation suggesting they ride the subway. ”

The vice president also implied that schools should be closed as the threat of swine flu increases.

Then after the chaos started over Biden’s ill-timed comment … the retraction was made. Why is it that the WH clarification is paragraphs longer than the actual statement?

About two hours after the interview, Biden’s office issued a statement attempting to clarify the vice president’s remarks.

“The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the administration is giving all Americans: That they should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways. This is the advice the vice president has given family members who are traveling by commercial airline this week,” Biden’s spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander, said in a statement.

Nice spin try on the part of the WH; however, The Gateway Pundit has it right:

Of course, this is not true.
Biden was not talking about sick family members. He was talking about healthy family members using public transportation.
It was a nice try though.

Vice President Joe Biden’s Remarks on Swine Flu Draw Criticism

Even Democrats were a bit annoyed over the Biden gaffe.

Democrats hustled to temper Vice President Joe Biden’s comments today that he would advise his family to avoid flying or being in confined spaces because of concerns about swine flu, a comment that drew criticism from the travel industry.

UPDATE I: Joe Biden, Isn’t a train elf enclosed transportation?

After VP Biden caused and uproar and advised against riding the subway or taking commercial flights during the “Swine flu” outbreaks … Joe Biden takes the train home.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano commented, “If he could say that over again, he would say if they’re feeling sick, they should stay off of public transit or confined spaces.”

By Friday night, Biden seemed ready for his own do-over. A longtime rider of Amtrak, he took a train from Union Station to his Delaware home, his office said.