WATCH | Biden opens statement on Nashville school shooting with 'ice cream joke'

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United States President Joe Biden made a bizarre joke about eating ice cream before making a statement on the US school shooting incident that took place at an elementary school in Nashville in which three children and three adults were killed.

"My name is Joe Biden. I’m Dr Jill Biden’s husband. I eat Jeni’s ice cream — chocolate chip. I came down because I heard there was chocolate chip ice cream. By the way, I have a whole refrigerator full upstairs. You think I’m kidding? I’m not," Joe Biden can be heard saying in the video which was shared widely on social media.

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The president of the United States then called the shooting “heartbreaking” and “sick” while asking Congress to do more to "stop the gun violence".

“It's just sick. You know, we're still gathering the facts of what happened and why. And we do know that, as of now, there are a number of people who are not going to, did not make it, including children. And it's heartbreaking. A family's worst nightmare,” said Joe Biden.

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Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie criticised Biden's “insensitive” joke while speaking to Fox News. Christie said, “To say that he misunderstood the moment would be an understatement. You know, the president is watching, you’d hope before he comes down there, the awful scenes from the shooting and the reactions of family members and friends of people in that school. And to be coming down, joking about the fact that he’s Jill Biden’s husband and looking for chocolate chip ice cream is hardly the way to start it.”

"There’s no way to talk about something like this except to say that for all of us who are parents, what we dread every day is the news about the health and life of our children," he stated.

(With inputs from agencies)

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