Footage Emerges of Biden Telling the Pope Bizarre Jokes During Their Highly Anticipated Meeting
President Joe Biden offered jokes to Pope Francis during their 90-minute meeting at the Vatican on Friday.
The Vatican released only a few minutes of footage from their meeting, but it showed Biden enjoying himself.
“I’m not sure this is appropriate, but there’s a tradition in America. That the president has what is called a command coin,” Biden said, speaking through a translator, according to the Daily Mail.
He said the coin was meant for “warriors and leaders.”
“You are the most significant warrior for peace I ever met,” the president said in a video of the exchange as he handed Francis the coin.
“On the back of it, I have the state of Delaware, the 261st Unit my son served with,” he said, referring to his late son, Beau, who served in the Delaware National Guard.
“And the tradition is — and I’m only kidding about this — if the next time I see you, you don’t have it, you have to buy the drinks,” Biden said. There was general laughter as the remark was translated.
“I’m the only Irishman you’re ever met who’s never had a drink,” he then added.
Biden awkwardly tries joking with Pope Francis about him buying drinks the next time they meet pic.twitter.com/0UV43jNRmC
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 29, 2021
“I’m the only Irish man you’ve ever met who’s never had a drink.”… US President Joe Biden jokes with Pope Francis. The Holy Father in return references a bottle of whiskey! Oh Ireland. ?? pic.twitter.com/rsS2shwNVF
— Colm Flynn (@colmflynnire) October 29, 2021
“The first Irishman you’ve ever met that hasn’t had a drink”.
Followed by laughter from the Pope.
1. Biden isn’t Irish
2. A Pope that is against discrimination etc. it’s ok to joke about the Irish? Or that the Irish have always been abandoned by Rome? What’s so funny exactly? https://t.co/jMhFDEN2BJ
— Kezard II (@Kezarddd2) October 29, 2021
In a separate video, Biden repeated a story he has told before about baseball great Satchel Paige, who was only able to pitch in the major leagues at the end of his long career because of racial segregation.
In the story, Paige was asked about his age after pitching a winning game on his 47th birthday.
“Boys, that’s not how I look at age,” the pitcher responded, as the president told it. “I look at it this way. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”
Biden, 78, then turned to the pope, 84, for the punch line.
“You’re 65, I’m 60,” he said.
Biden to Pope Francis: Have I ever told you the one about Satchel Paige? pic.twitter.com/p1wZMDxKUr
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 29, 2021
When the president rolled out the joke in the summer as the 2020 World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers visited the White House, he had a different ending.
“I am 51 years old,” Biden said then. “You guys are 19.”
He told the same story when he was vice president in 2016 during a speech in Brazil.
“I’m 42,” Biden said on that occasion, according to a transcript. “And I’m looking at an audience of college students here.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
