2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden claimed he was vice president during the school shooting in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 even though it took place almost 13 months after Mike Pence took over from him.

Speaking to reporters in Iowa on Saturday, the former vice president, 76, said, "Those kids in Parkland came up to see me when I was vice president." He went on to claim that lawmakers on Capitol Hill at the time of the February 2018 massacre were "basically cowering, not wanting to see them. He said: "They did not want to face it on camera."

It is unclear whether Biden met with Parkland survivors when he was out of office or if he was mixing up Parkland with another mass shooting.

Biden's comments came as he was calling for a cultural shift around how the country thinks about gun ownership at the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund's Presidential Gun Sense Forum Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa.

The slip-up follows several flubs made by the 2020 front-runner, including telling supporters this week that "poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids." Last week, he mistakenly referred to last weekend's mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, as the "tragic events in Houston" and "also in Michigan." He also told Iowans: "We choose truth over facts."

Biden turned heads when he repeatedly stumbled over numbers, statistics and names during the Democrats' second round of primary debates in Detroit last month. He has remained the consistent Democratic leader, though he is now polling at an average of nearly 31%, with his rivals gaining.

