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Watch Biden Forget Name of Pentagon, Defense Secretary: 'The Guy Who Runs That Outfit Over There'

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In Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes’ recently released book “Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency,” the authors wrote that the “broader campaign goal” of the man who would eventually become president was, “Don’t f*** up.”

If you ever wondered why he was hiding in the basement in Wilmington, Delaware, that was probably it. Ever wonder why his speeches were short and contained pro-forma rhetoric? Again, “Don’t f*** up.”

“One half of his low bar for success had been set by Trump, who told the public that Biden was an enabler of socialism and crime who couldn’t speak English in complete sentences,” Allen and Parnes wrote. “The other half came from an anti-Trump coalition that would forgive almost any Biden misstep.”

Yes, well, that corner of the “anti-Trump coalition” in the mainstream media can forgive what they want now, but there’s no basement in Delaware for Biden to hide in. That’s why we now have a president that doesn’t remember the name of the Pentagon or his secretary of defense, preferring, “The guy who runs the thing over there.”

The remarks came during an event Monday celebrating International Women’s Day. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was there, as Biden pointed out, for his effort to “take on sexual assault in the military” as well as to highlight that the armed forces were making important changes like maternity flight suits and “updating requirements for their hairstyles,” according to a transcript.

Biden was also announcing his nomination of two female generals for promotion to four-star commands, as CNN reported.

At the end of the speech, however, he thanked Austin, a former four-star Army general, for what he did at the Pentagon thusly:

“I want to thank you both and I want to thank the former general, I keep calling him general, but my — the guy who runs that outfit over there — I want to make sure we thank the secretary for all he’s done to try to implement what we just talked about and for recommending these two women for promotion,” Biden said.

The moment went largely ignored by the mainstream media — naturally — but social media users were all over it.

Related:
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But wait, bullies. As we all know, Biden has a problem with stuttering, which explains why he forgot the name of Defense Secretary Austin. And the Pentagon, which is where Austin presides.

I doubt there’s a place in hell for people who continually use Biden’s stutter as an excuse for almost every strange verbal solecism Biden makes, but there’s certainly a place in the pantheon of self-delusion. There are a lot of people who would disagree with this assessment, after all — starting with Joe Biden:



“I don’t think of myself as continuing to stutter,” Biden told Axios in 2019. “That doesn’t cross my mind that I’m stuttering.”

“Look, the mistakes I make are mistakes. And some people think I still stutter. I don’t think of myself that way.”

Is Joe Biden experiencing cognitive decline?

And this isn’t the first mistake he’s made in this vein. When introducing Health and Human Services nominee Xavier Becerra in December, Biden managed to mangle both the cabinet department in question as well as the pronunciation of Beceerra’s name.

Bidenc called the department “Health and Education Services.” He pronounced Becerra’s name as “Back-a-ria.” It’s pronounced “Be-serr-ah.”

Check it out here:



But let’s keep pretending it’s the stutter. That’s what prevented the man who holds the presidency from remembering the name of the guy he picked to run the thing that does the war stuff — oh, what’s it called?

Remember: When you’re the leader of the free world and have to open your mouth constantly, the bar is a lot higher than “Don’t f*** up.”

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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