Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign has certainly multiplied the opportunities for his now-infamous gaffes of all varieties.
In the past two months alone, Biden claimed his uncle was eaten by cannibals in World War II, his stumbling has necessitated an entourage to surround him to block the public’s view, and the released excerpts of his interviews with a special counsel showed he couldn’t remember when his son died or even when he was vice president.
And now, while hitting the campaign trail at the Gateway Technical College in Racine, Wisconsin, Biden has suffered another verbal and cognitive misstep, seriously calling into question his ability to finish out his term, let alone serve another four years.
As seen in a clip of the speech shared by Forbes Breaking News, Biden began his speech decently enough, regaling the crowd with boring, yet dubiously truthful, stories about his youth.
He began, “look, before I get started, I want to set the record straight.”
Please do, Joe. Please, do.
Continuing with his little story, he told the crowd “I went to a Catholic High School in Delaware, taught by the Norbertine priests from St. Norbert’s College, you know, a little t — a little team called ‘Green Bay.’”
The audience dutifully applauded at this transparent attempt at pandering, before Biden resumed, saying “Now, here’s the deal. We were the only high school in Delaware that overwhelmingly rooted for Green Bay — not a joke, I’ll tell you why. Every single Sunday — not only did they have great teams at the time, still do — but not only that, my theology professor at the Catholic school I went to — was a guy named Reilly, last name — and he had been drafted by the Green Bay Packers, and he decided to become a priest before that, so he didn’t go.”
Was this another gaffe by Biden?
Now, there were actually a couple of problems with Biden’s statement here, but let’s start with the most obvious.
Was he supposed to say “Reilly last name?”
Was he clarifying that Reilly was the fellow’s last name, or did the text on the teleprompter read “Reilly [LAST NAME]” and, as has often been the case with Biden, he read the stage direction as well as his speech?
The other problem was that, as usual, Biden’s story was patently false.
The New York Post dug into Biden’s claim and found that, as most probably suspected, his professor was not drafted by the NFL.
Not only that, but a quick glance at the NFL’s public records showed that only one person with the last name Reilly (under any spelling), has been drafted since 1936, and that was a quarterback from the University of Colorado in 1947.
Still, for most people, the initial gaffe would be the one that stands out most prominently.
Of course, the White House’s official transcript amended the grammar of what he said to make it seem deliberate, writing “my theology professor at the Catholic school I went to was a guy named Reilley, last name.”
Even then, though, that wouldn’t make any sense — most people, if they had no recollection of a person’s first or last name, would have either said so explicitly, or just called him something like “Professor Reilley.”
Besides, the Biden White House has had a long history of papering over Biden’s gaffes in the official transcripts, issuing 148 different corrections on his speeches, including changing the meaning of what he originally said.
And, regardless of whether or not this instance was Biden reading out his stage direction again, or an intentional part of his speech, it should not distract from the fact that Biden’s mental state is obviously not what it was decades ago.
Granted, he was still making up ridiculous stories about his past when he could think straight, but his continued inability to speak clearly or distinguish his stage directions from his speech has been especially concerning.
This is a man angling for another four years in the most stressful job on the planet.
How could he possibly fulfill the requirements of that job when, at every opportunity, he has demonstrated how unequipped he has been to handle the duties of a president?
At the very least, you would hope a candidate for president would have enough reading comprehension skills to distinguish between his stage directions and his actual speech.
