Going nuclear during an angry exchange with Fox News Channel anchor Charles Payne, leftist panelist Leslie Marshall furiously said she didn’t “appreciate” Payne’s comments about her intelligence as they argued about President Joe Biden’s gaffes and lapses of memory. Their spat came during the Wednesday, April 24 broadcast of “Outnumbered.”
The fight came as the two argued over the significance of Biden’s gaffes and lapses of memory, with Payne arguing that the “mainstream media” does not sufficiently cover them, and Marshall arguing that they’re less significant than former President Donald Trump and those on his side argue when trying to denigrate the president.
Payne, for his part, led by arguing that it is very “frustrating” that the “mainstream media” sites and channels tend to, in his view, dodge covering Biden’s errors, such as his frequent teleprompter slip-ups. Giving his take on Biden’s mental state, Payne said, “Do you want your commander-in-chief to be someone who can’t even read off an index card?”
Marshall didn’t respond directly, instead saying that she and everyone else make errors on air, and so President Biden’s slip-ups are not much of a problem that we need to worry about. Giving an example, she said that she, at one point, accidentally referred to the Palestinians as the “people of Pakistan.”
Payne didn’t buy that argument. Responding, he said that it was a “dumb example” and that he was offended by her insulting his intelligence with it. He said, “It always offends when people talk to me and us like we’re dumb, what you make is such a dumb example. We’re not talking about you or me or her making an occasional gaffe.”
Marshall fired back, “I don’t think you’re dumb —” and Payne argued that the problem is much larger than her example appears to consider, saying, “We’re talking about gaffe after gaffe after gaffe!” Marshall then sounded of on his saying that her example was dumb, taking that to mean that he said she was dumb, snapping, “I don’t appreciate you calling me dumb!” Payne told her, “No, you’re not dumb! You’re insulting! Gaffe after gaffe after gaffe after gaffe!”
Clarifying her point, Marshall told Payne that, while she understands Biden’s gaffes are more than one-offs, she doesn’t think they’re a big deal because everyone makes gaffes, even when using notes. She said, “I never said it was a one-off. What what I’m saying is, I think it’s normal for people to make gaffes. I use notes when I give speeches. I’m not running for president.”
Watch her and Payne explode here:
The fight over Biden’s mental acuity comes after the Hur report cast doubts on Biden’s mental fitness for the president. In the report, the special counsel said, “We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory . . . It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him—by then a former president well into his eighties of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”
Elsewhere, the special counsel gave examples of Biden’s failing memory. The report provided, “In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse. He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (“if it was 2013 – when did I stop being Vice President?”), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (“in 2009, am I still Vice President?”), He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he “had a real difference” of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama. In a case where the government must prove that Mr. Biden knew he had possession of the classified Afghanistan documents after the vice presidency and chose to keep those documents, knowing he was violating the law, we expect that at trial, his attorneys would emphasize these limitations in his recall.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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