Quote:Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday his use of the term "Shylocks," which some consider anti-Semitic, was "a poor choice of words."

His statement came a day after the national director of the Anti-Defamation League issued a mild rebuke of the vice president's use of the word, saying Biden "should have been more careful."

At a Tuesday conference marking the 40th anniversary of the Legal Services Corporation, Biden recalled anecdotes from his son's experience serving in Iraq and meeting members of the military who were in need of legal help because of problems back at home.

"That's one of the things that he finds was most in need when he was over there in Iraq for a year," Biden said. "That people would come to him and talk about what was happening to them at home in terms of foreclosures, in terms of bad loans that were being ... I mean these Shylocks who took advantage of, um, these women and men while overseas."

Quote:Vice President Joe Biden described Asia as “the Orient’ in a speech here today, hours after he apologized for using a word that could be perceived as anti-Semitic.

“You know, on the way back from Mumbai to go meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy named Lee Kuan Yew, who most foreign policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient,” Biden said at the kickoff for the “Nuns on the Bus” tour today.

Quote:claims
Published September 19, 2014
FoxNews.com
Facebook226 Twitter396 livefyre1707 Email Print
Democrats Women Biden_AP_660.jpg

In this Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 photo, Vice President Joe Biden, speaks at the DNC Women's Leadership Forum in Washington. (AP)

Vice President Biden, speaking to a Democratic women’s forum, had an awkward moment Friday as he praised former Sen. Bob Packwood -- who was forced out of Congress over sexual harassment claims.

The vice president invoked the former Republican senator while addressing the Democratic National Committee's women's leadership forum.

The speech was largely devoted to highlighting the need to fight domestic violence against young women. But he also launched into an argument about how Republicans have changed since he was in the Senate, as he made his case for why Democrats need to hold their ground in the midterms.

He cited past GOP efforts to expand voter registration legislation, mentioning the late Maryland Sen. Charles "Mac" Mathias and Packwood.

“It’s Republicans that were involved, guys like Mac Mathias and Packwood and so many others. It wasn’t Democrats involved,” Biden said. “So I’m not joking, this is not your father’s Republican Party or your mother’s Republican Party.”

Problem is, Packwood was forced to resign from the Senate in 1995 after several women accused him of making unwanted or uninvited sexual advances.