On May 18, 2024, Biden headed to Mary Mac’s Tea Room in Atlanta, Georgia, for a campaign meeting with primarily African-American voters in the city. Georgia is now something of a purple state, generally voting red but having two Democrat Senators after 2020, and is one Joe will probably need to win in 2024 if he wants to beat Trump. Unfortunately for him, this meeting was somewhat awkward, as during it he broke wind and the audience laughed heartily at him.
During the meeting, Biden rambled about elections, saying, “Well, look, it’s good to be back. I was — the last time I was in this room was, I think, 2014, 2015 — in that range. And, you know, as they say in Claymont, Delaware, where I — when we moved from Scranton, Pennsylvania, moved to a little steel town in northern Delaware called Claymont. And — and you all brung me to the dance. The reason we’re here is because — and all the electeds that are here — and I don’t want to start naming; I’ll leave somebody out — but you really made a gigantic difference. And everybody — it’s easy to forget, but I don’t forget — little elections in January elected two senators— two.”
He continued, “And every- — and re- — I want you all to remember that when we first got elected, we were told that because everything was so close in terms of numbers, we couldn’t get anything big done. We got everything done. Because of you. No, I’m not joking. Because of you. From the Recovery A- — all the way around the horn, all of it. And we’re going to do a lot more.”
He then got into this election and said that he thinks he’ll do well in the election, saying, “You know, I’m — I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to do this again. And I really mean it when I say — the Congressman knows what I’m talking about — we got a — we got a tight operation. And — and it’s going to be — I think we’re going to do well.”
He added, speaking about the polls, “I think — and, you know, look, here’s the deal. You hear about how, you know, we’re behind in the polls. Well, so far, the polls haven’t been right once. Now that — look, we’re all — we’re either tie or slightly ahead or slightly behind. But what I look at is actual election results. And election results are in the primaries. Look at the primaries. Well, Mr. Trump has — he doesn’t have an opponent, but he lost 120,000 votes in Pennsylvania — didn’t vote for him. (Laughter.) They voted for a woman who’s no longer in the race. A hundred th- — I’m — they’re rough numbers; I think it’s 120,000, I think. In — in Indiana, I think it was 100,000 votes. And my point is that this is — I’m not going to take a lot of time. I want to talk to you individually. But the fact is that this election, a lot is at stake — lots at stake. It’s not about me; it’s about the alternative as well.”
In any case, during that meeting, Biden broke wind while speaking and the audience erupted in laughter. Then, not seeming to realize why they were laughing, Biden turned around, looking surprised, and bizarrely saluted the audience.
Watch him here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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