(UnitedVoice.com) – President Joe Biden wants to be re-elected for another four years — but doubts about his fitness for the job keep growing. The president’s latest gaffe came at a trade union conference, where he didn’t just read his speech from the teleprompter, he read the instructions as well. The astonishing blunder has attracted fierce criticism and yet more worries about Biden’s mental state.
On April 24, Biden made a campaign speech at a North American Building Trades Unions conference in Washington, DC. He talked about what he’s done in office, then urged the audience to “imagine what we could do next. Four more years, pause.” The “pause,” clearly, was an instruction telling him to leave a gap after that line so people could echo his last words. Instead, there was an awkward moment as chants of “Four more years!” clashed with the president saying, “Pause.”
Social media quickly exploded with criticism and ridicule. Fox News columnist Guy Benson and others compared Biden to “Anchorman” character Ron Burgundy, who has a habit of reading exactly what the teleprompter says. Writer Ian Miller pointed out that “the best part” wasn’t that the president “pulled a Ron Burgundy” –- it was that it took him several seconds to work out what he did wrong this time.
While there were plenty of jokes about Biden’s blunder, others took the issue more seriously. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) said “This is sad,” although he couldn’t resist adding “(Pause & frown)” after it.
Representative Jim Banks (R-IN) was blunter, saying, “This man is not mentally fit to be president.” Fox News contributor Steve Cortes said Biden’s repeated gaffes “would be funny if he weren’t president.” He noted that teleprompter instructions are clearly marked as separate from the actual speech, to make sure the speaker knows not to read them out.
The blunder is just one more in a long list of mistakes made by the 46th president.
Copyright 2024, UnitedVoice.com
