Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden really grabbed the audience’s eyes at the climate change town hall – literally, as his eye filled with blood after a lackluster performance marked by half-truths and excuses.

The former Vice President was clearly floundering during CNN’s climate change town hall on Wednesday, which saw him face off against eight other Democrats. Viewers called him out for “rambling, incoherent” answers and held his feet to the fire regarding his coziness with the fossil fuel industry. Then his left eye began filling up with blood.

Biden’s left eye is totally bloody. pic.twitter.com/3InLWMdfJk — Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) September 5, 2019

The Eye of Biden the Terrible few could endure. pic.twitter.com/sTI6EM0Ld6 — Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) September 5, 2019

At around the same time, his campaign cautioned voters not to “turn a blind eye to the way in which environmental burdens are distributed unevenly along racial and socioeconomic lines” – an ironic coincidence, or a sly reference to the unusual anatomic event?

We can't turn a blind eye to the way in which environmental burdens are distributed unevenly along racial and socioeconomic lines.Biden will right these wrongs and stand up to fossil fuel companies who disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income communities. — Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 5, 2019

Before Biden’s eye exploded, the audience had been raking him over the coals for a scheduled fundraiser the following night at the home of a natural gas executive. The three-time candidate has never been particularly committed to “green” issues – slammed by environmental groups for not having a climate change policy, he finally released one in June that contained several plagiarized items. But he had, along with most of the other Democratic candidates, promised not to take money from the fossil fuel industry – a promise the fundraiser seemed to break, to viewers’ dismay.

Biden just confirmed he opposes banning fracking on the state and national level. A measure Germany and France introduced long ago.The fact that his fundraiser tomorrow night is put on by an executive up to his eyeballs in fracked gas is totally unrelated. #ClimateTownHall — Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) September 5, 2019

But even the most blatant political hypocrisy was no match for the eye. “Look, Biden haters, sometimes your eye is gonna spontaneously fill up with blood, okay,” one user joked. “Twitter furiously deploying algorithms to keep Biden’s bloody corpse eye from trending,” observed another (it appeared to work - while #ClimateTownHall was trending, #BidensBloodyEye and variations thereof were noticeably not).

Apparently, it wasn’t even the first time Biden’s eye has filled up with blood during an important political event.

Countdown to Biden campaign team saying "This is normal and has happened before. It's his uh contact lens, yeah"They should just be honest and say yeah well he's like 5000 years old of course his eyeball and body is rotting and bleeding — Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) September 5, 2019

But some commenters found a way to bring the conversation back to the environment. “Not sure after tonight who has less time to live, Biden or the planet,” said one. “Joe Biden lied so hard during the climate town hall that his eye started bleeding,” commented another. “I give it 14 minutes before Biden’s campaign says his bloody eye was because of climate change,” predicted another.

Also on rt.com Memory loss or lying? Joe Biden’s constant gaffes should worry Democrats

Meanwhile, others made the inevitable comparisons to Hillary Clinton – another candidate with a marked “enthusiasm gap” between donors and voters, who has run for president and lost before, yet is propped up by the media as the surefire winner.

Hillary is sitting there throwing a rocks glass at the television screaming how she passed out once and it ended her campaign while Biden’s eye fell out on national TV and he’ll still be the frontrunner. — Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) September 5, 2019

And some took time out from gawking to worry about his health, since political speeches don’t normally cause visible injury. “Does Biden have a blood clot in his left eye?” wondered one user. “This can’t be good news, given his health history,” noted another.

Is he okBiden's eye fills with blood during CNN climate town hall https://t.co/PhgldCgSnM — Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) September 5, 2019

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