Biden Apologizes as He Forgets Who His Handlers Told Him to Call On: 'I'm Embarrassed'
And the hits just keep on coming.
In the latest embarrassing news conference goof by President Joe Biden, not even his vaunted cue cards to identify which reporters to call on were enough to save him from embarrassment.
In a bad-viral moment during the briefing Wednesday in Woodside, California, which had to do with his talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Biden made it clear he was meant to call upon someone from CBS News but couldn’t remember their name.
“I’m embarrassed,” Biden said, looking down at his cards. “I think it’s CBS, but I can’t remember who at CBS.”
“And I’m sorry,” he noted.
The correct answer, according to a White House transcript of the event, was CBS News’ Weijia Jiang.
However, that’s not quite the issue at hand here.
Even with his cue cards, he wasn’t able to get the name right.
Q cards with pre-selected reporters and the answers to their questions. It was plain as day.
— Rob Allen (@RobMAllen1971) November 16, 2023
And it’s not exactly like they’re making it all that hard for him. A previous appearance of the cue cards in the spring showed the reporter’s name spelled out phonetically, along with a rough outline of the question she was going to ask:
Biden used a cheat sheet at today’s press conference — with a reporter’s question written on it pic.twitter.com/jfZu5JxKz5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 26, 2023
Even with this, Biden didn’t attempt a pronunciation of Courtney Subramanian’s last name, calling her “Courtney, Los Angeles Times” during that news conference.
Another news conference last month saw cue cards with both the reporter’s name and picture on it, again.
Biden’s cheat sheet looks like a kindergarten work sheet. pic.twitter.com/P5dFgUI3Hh
— Ali Rom (@alicjarom) October 27, 2023
Not only does this kind of thing keep Biden from any serious adversarial questions, but it also provides real-time information into how far the president’s cognitive state has deteriorated.
Now, I hardly expect the U.S. president to deliver six-hour oratories from memory, but considering how short his news conferences are, this is a problem — especially since he’s being given aids that spell it out to him like a child.
And yet, given all of this, he still gets it wrong.
As always, we’re supposed to believe that this is nothing. A blip. If it’s really bad, the White House can always trot out the “childhood stutter” excuse and make anyone who raises questions about his cognitive state a bully.
However, people have eyes and ears. They see these pictures on social media. They see how the president seems to speak and note (not wrongly) that these don’t seem to be the thoughts of a man playing with the full deck.
And they’re right.
The only full deck Biden has left? His cue cards, and they still don’t work.
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