Joe Biden has committed so many gaffes in just the month of August alone that most of us have lost track of them.
He’s added more to the list this week, with the two latest coming from a campaign stop he made in Richmond, Va. on Tuesday.
In the first video clip, Biden is talking about remarks President Trump made at the G7 Summit earlier this week where he said “President Putin outsmarted President Obama” on the Russia/Ukraine/Crimea issue. The Daily Caller’s Virginia Kruta sets the scene:
[Trump] claimed that Obama wanted Russia removed from the G7 — then the G8 — because Putin had “tricked” Obama when he invaded the Ukraine on his watch. Trump had then argued that Russia should be allowed to come back to the table, saying that he would rather have them “inside the tent” than outside it.
“They invaded another country and annexed a significant portion of it, called Crimea,” Biden said in response, adding, “He’s saying that it was President … my boss … it was his fault.”
Watch video of Biden’s flub below:
Joe Biden appears to forget Barack Obama's name pic.twitter.com/ffyaqSHYBA
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 28, 2019
During that same speech, probably preceding it, Biden also mistakenly referred to the G7 Summit as “the G8”:
Biden refers to G7 as G8 before saying, “if I have any expertise, it’s in American foreign policy”https://t.co/lLVx0CWyWG pic.twitter.com/pXlyjUcYAX
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 28, 2019
In fairness, it used to be called the G8 until Russia was effectively kicked out of it in 2014 over their annexation of Crimea. President Obama helped lead the effort to ban Putin from the summit as punishment for his actions.
That isolation is why the summit is now called the G7.
The rising number of gaffes Biden continues to make come at a time when as his aides are furiously trying to wave off any concerns that the former vice president is not up to the task of running for president:
“I think the press has to be more careful about applying an unfair standard to Joe Biden than they’re applying to other candidates,” Bedingfield responded. “If you listen to what the candidates say all day as they’re out campaigning, they’re out in front of cameras, they’re in front of people, they’re talking all day. Everybody’s going to slip up and misstate a name or a date or a location. It happens all the time.”
She continued: “People know who he is. They know this is a part of his charm. They understand that, you know, they’re getting it straight from him. It’s not overly packaged. He’s always speaking from his heart. And sure, that means sometimes he’s going to misstate a couple of things. But, frankly, so does every other candidate.”
.@KBeds says "Everybody's going to slip up and misstate a name or a date. What doesn't happen is it doesn't get the outsized attention that Joe Biden gets. I understand that's part of being a front runner. I think that people know him. They know it's part of his charm." #AMRstaff
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) August 27, 2019
It’s true that all candidates make gaffes of some sort. It sort of goes with territory of being on the road non-stop, talking to people, and being surrounded by campaign aides 24-7. But this is different. Very different.
I wrote last week about this issue and speculated that it’s quite possible the frequent mistakes Biden makes on the campaign trail can no longer be boiled down simply to tiredness, long days on the campaign trail, and “Joe being Joe.”
I hope I’m wrong and that this is not “something more” concerning, as some Democrats have hinted it might be.
——-
— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –
Join the conversation as a VIP Member