Joe Biden with his son Beau Biden in 2008. Photo: AFP.
The president's speech at the community center in Hallandale Beach, Florida. On Tuesday, the focus was on warning the state's older voters that Republicans would change their pension and health benefits.
He attacked Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio for not supporting the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act , a law that includes health provisions such as limiting the price of insulin.
“How many of you know someone with diabetes and need insulin?” Mr. Biden asked the audience.
“Do you know how much it costs to produce insulin to treat diabetes? … It was invented by a man who didn't patent it because he wanted it to be available to everyone. I spoke to him, okay?”
Insulin, a hormone produced in the body, was first successfully isolated by Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best in 1921. Sir Frederick died in 1941, a year before Biden was born. .
It is unclear whether he ever met Best, whose name, unlike Sir Frederick's, appears on the patent. Best died in 1978.
Biden, who this month will become the first octogenarian president in American history, has had a history of missteps since he was a young US senator.
But his verbal hesitation drew more attention as he is the oldest occupant of the White House.
The 79-year-old has said he intends to run for a second term, but the polls are worrisome. older than his age carry a lot of weight among Democratic voters, and many assume they would prefer a younger alternative.
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