This one’s a solid nine out of 10 on the cringe-o-meter. The only reason it’s not a 10, in fact, is because he seemed reasonably coherent in his other remarks.
Still, it’s at times like these that I’m grateful America has a highly competent, well-regarded VP.
The point of his address this morning was to petition Congress to approve a new aid package for Ukraine. He started off well enough. Not objectively “good,” perhaps, but in line with his usual standards:
BIDEN: “The cost of this fight is not cheap, but caving to aggression is going to be more costly if we allow it to happen. We either back the Ukrainian people as they defend their country or we stand by.”pic.twitter.com/xcNSqvLDcU
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 28, 2022
But then things took a turn. What happened here, exactly?
Biden's brain just broke, again. pic.twitter.com/tuZub9v1IX
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 28, 2022
The best I can do to offer a theory other than “senior moment” is to guess that he derailed at the word “accommodate,” which clearly isn’t correct in context. We’re not accommodating Russian oligarchs, we’re holding them accountable. Biden may have recognized in the moment “wait, that’s not right” and gotten distracted. And that distraction may have caused him to stutter — dramatically — while trying to pronounce “kleptocracy.”
In any case, he recovered well enough to take some questions afterward:
When asked by @PeterAlexander on reports he’s considering eliminating some #StudentDebt, @POTUS says he’s considering “some debt reduction”: “I am considering dealing with some debt reductions. I’m not considering $50,000 debt reduction..” #studentloanforgiveness pic.twitter.com/z5DnWgi2Xq
— Stephen Michael (@stephenreports) April 28, 2022
I wonder if his comms team has authority to abruptly cancel a Q&A even when Biden seems game if it looks to them like he’s “having a bad day,” shall we say. They didn’t do it in this case.
Anyway, exciting news for Democratic incumbents: A guy with a 40 percent approval rating, whose every appearance results in a new round of “is he okay?” speculation, is planning to make himself the face of the party this summer.
President Biden is ramping up for the midterm elections, rolling out endorsements for Democrats, hitting the campaign trail for fundraisers, underscoring his agenda and working to “sharpen the contrast” between his administration and congressional Republicans, a Biden adviser told Fox News.
“Expect more POTUS,” the adviser said, adding that in the months leading up to the midterm elections, the president will hit the trail with more travel to speak “directly to the American people both about what we’ve done and what we are doing.”…
The adviser told Fox News that Americans will begin to see “more travel” from the president. The adviser cited as examples Biden’s recent trips to Iowa; his trip to North Carolina; and his travel to Portland and Seattle where he discussed the benefits of the bipartisan infrastructure law and his administration’s efforts, and the need, to lower prescription drug costs.
Remember when Biden swung by Georgia back in January and Stacey Abrams couldn’t attend due to an unspecified prior engagement? There are destined to be a lot of “prior engagements” for Democratic candidates when Grandpa Joe hits the trail.
Exit question: Are Democrats just … not going to field a presidential candidate in 2024? Each of their top two seems completely unelectable right now, albeit for different reasons.
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