In yet another one of his all too common gaffes, President Joe Biden accidentally asked voters to re-elect him and “choose freedom over democracy,” a statement that doesn’t make much sense for President Biden given his generally pro-“our democracy” stance. His comment came during a rally alongside the Kennedy family on Thursday, April 18, and led to a large amount of criticism of him online.
That gaffe comment came toward the end of the speech, when the aging president said, “Are you ready to choose unity over division, dignity over demolition, and choose truth over lies? Are you ready to choose freedom over democracy?”
He then joked about his age and wizened appearance, saying, “Because that’s America. Folks, I’ve been doing this a long — I know I only look like I’m 40, but I’ve been doing this a long time. But I’ve never been more optimistic about our future, and I mean it.”
He continued, “We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. There is nothing — I mean this sincerely. Think about it. We’re the only nation in the world — as a student of history, I can say — that’s come out of ever crisis stronger than we went in. There’s nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.”
Correcting his comments in its transcript of the speech, the White House Briefing Room recorded that what Biden meant to say was “freedom and democracy,” not the much more controversial, on the left “freedom over democracy.”
That would made sense in the context of his speech, which was overwhelmingly pro-democracy. At one point in it, for example, he said, “I see an America where we defend democracy, not diminish it. I see an America where we protect our freedoms, not take them away. And I see an America where the economy grows from the middle out and the bottom up — and that way, the middle class does well and the poor have a shot — and where healthcare is a right, not a privilege.”
Watch Biden’s gaffe here:
Predictably, clips of the gaffe took off on X and led to intense criticism of the aging president. Author, CEO, and commentator Dan Eberhart, for example, wrote, “He’s fine. Everything’s fine. Biden is definitely not in severe mental decline. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” Similarly, X personality Nick Sortor asked, “What the hell is this guy saying?”
Similarly, Mario Nawfal posted, “🇺🇸BIDEN: LET’S CHOOSE FREEDOM OVER DEMOCRACY?! Biden: “Are you ready to choose Freedom OVER democracy – because THAT is America!” Guy in the crowd: “Whooohoo…YES…wait…uh” Dems really need to upgrade his OS or something…” Similarly, Rob Coates, a conservative podcaster, wrote, “Dear lord, get this man out of office!”
The Conservative Bried, joining in, wrote, “Folks, this is the President of our United States saying this. When people were concerned about Ronald Reagan having cognitive decline near the end of his second term, it was nothing like this. When Dan Quayle couldn’t spell ‘potato’ correctly, people lost their minds. But it was nothing like this. When George W. Bush was in the Oval Office, and people said Dick Cheney was running the country because he couldn’t, it was nothing like this. Look in the mirror and ask yourself, truthfully, if this is the man you want in charge of our security, our economy, and our country for another four years?”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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