Joe Biden’s ‘Joe30330’ debate flub leads to college student’s pank website

Joe Biden again lit up the Internet on Wednesday night when he confused viewers with a call to text his campaign.

In the former vice president’s closing remarks, following the lead of previous candidates who had urged viewers to “go to” their websites, Biden also said to “go to Joe 30330,” prompting widespread bewilderment online. Though Biden was asking viewers to text JOE-30330, some Twitter users joked he was announcing a presidential run for 3030 or assumed that was the name of his website.

One enterprising Syracuse University student, meanwhile, bought up the moment’s prime web real estate — joe30330.com — and promptly redirected it first to Pete Buttigieg‘s website and then to the URL joshforamerica.com, a fake political-campaign site that he made as an April Fool’s joke earlier this year.

The creator, 21-year-old public relations major Josh Fayer, writes in the “Meet Josh” section of his site, “As the first Gen Z’er to declare candidacy for this office, you can trust that I’m the real deal. And I’m not joshin’ you.”

After a notice that the website was paid for by “The Josh for America Excretionary Committee,” a disclaimer at the bottom says, “Hey! If Joe Biden sent you here, we just want to make something clear: we’re not affiliated with any presidential campaign. We’re just having some good fun (maybe a little bit at the expense of Joe) :)”

In an interview with USA Today published Thursday, Fayer said that he and a friend bought the URL quickly after Biden confused viewers, initially redirecting the URL to Buttigieg’s campaign website before deciding “that wouldn’t be such a good idea.” (joshforamerica.com still includes a link to donate to Buttigieg’s campaign.)

“We decided that (my campaign site) would be a better subject than a real political campaign,” he added.

According to Fayer, who has not been contacted by Biden or Buttigieg’s campaign, his central political issue is “homework in college.”