Did Joe Biden call Detroiters “animals”?

As the former Vice President was recalling his apparent responsibility to revitalize Detroit, he explained the dire straits the city found itself.

“I was put in charge of reviving Detroit for real, I mean, that was one of my jobs,” Biden told The Century Foundation.

“And I found out didn’t have anybody who knew how to turn on the streetlights, or the water system,” he said.

“Because they’re all animal— they’re, they’re, they’re all codes,” he continued. “They’re, I mean, you know, it takes some capacity.

“So we went out in the ‘hood, literally, as they said, the ‘hood, got over 50 women, happened to be all black, wasn’t intended that way. No one with more than a high school degree, GEDs, um, most of them, not most— 35 percent,” he claimed, seemingly confused.

TheHill reports:

Biden, who did not name Trump during his remarks calling for higher wages, also blasted “all of this foolishness that’s going on with this phony populism and this naked nationalism that’s being promulgated right now.”

“The lack of a value set, lack of treating people with dignity is because when things are tough for people economically who work hard, there are sometimes charlatans who come along who try to find a reason for those people to blame whatever’s happening to them on the other,” he said.