Lifelong Stutterer on Biden's Worrying Gaffes: 'It Ain’t a Childhood Stutter'
The childhood stutter of former Vice President Joe Biden has been blamed for his embarrassing gaffes, but a lifelong stutterer recently revealed that many of the candidate’s worrying mistakes should not be attributed to the condition.
In an opinion piece published Monday, Daily Caller News Foundation editor Peter J. Hasson explained that his lifelong stutter gives him a unique insight into Biden’s speech problem and why it can’t be blamed for all of the Democrat’s campaign missteps.
Biden’s stutter is no secret — the presidential candidate opened up to The Atlantic last year about his condition and its effects on his life.
Watching videos of Biden speeches, it’s obvious the former vice president has tackled his problem head on. Where he may have struggled to speak before, Biden now commands a confident presence on stage.
While his stutter may not be as bad as it was in his childhood, the problem rears its head when the Democratic candidate gets stuck on certain words.
The stutter was blamed for Biden’s inability to articulate Barack Obama’s name, seemingly leading the former vice president to substitute “my boss” for the difficult sounds.
While this is a very real problem stutterers around the world have, Hasson points out a glaring problem with the speech issue being blamed for all of Biden’s numerous gaffes.
“Stuttering can only explain why Biden sometimes has trouble articulating what he’s thinking,” Hasson wrote, “it can’t explain why he so often seems to be thinking the wrong things.”
Indeed, it’s nearly impossible to blame Biden’s stutter for him thinking the name of the most ubiquitous semi-automatic rifle in the United States is the “AR-14.”
Similarly, Biden’s apparent confusion on which state he’s in can hardly be attributed to his childhood stutter. There’s a problem here, and it has nothing to do with speech pathology.
Recently, Biden’s gaffes have become worryingly bizarre.
After a vulgar Tuesday engagement with an autoworker, reporters crowded Biden to ask his take on the encounter.
Instead of giving a straight answer, Biden claimed fellow candidate Bernie Sander was teaming up with President Donald Trump. As Biden was still speaking, his entourage appeared to herd him into a waiting car before slamming the door.
While it may be the increasing stresses of the campaign trail, Biden’s gaffes appear to be increasingly frequent and more bizarre with each passing week.
“What’s really behind Biden’s mental misfires is up for debate but the vast majority of the time, it ain’t a childhood stutter,” Hasson wrote, “and anybody saying otherwise is either dishonest or uninformed.”
With the November election quickly approaching, Biden’s mental fortitude will be put to the test.
Defeating Sanders for the Democratic nomination isn’t the end, but rather the first step for Biden’s White House ambitions. He’ll still have to face Trump’s sharp wit and ruthless drive before the nation heads to the polls.
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