President Joe Biden followed up his disastrously bad debate withe former President Donald Trump with a painfully embarrassing “Big Boy” press conference during which me made many of his infamous gaffes. Those included accidentally saying “Vice President Trump” and noting that he had been given “a list of people to call on.”
The “list of people to call on line” came after his opening speech and as he started taking questions from reporters. He ended the speech by saying, “We’re the United States of America. We are the indispensable nation. Our leadership matters. Our partnerships matter. This moment matters. We must rise to meet it.” He then said, “With that, I’ll take your questions. I’ve been given a list of people to call on here. Reuters, Jeff Mason.”
Mason asked him about the UAW’s view of him, asking, “Mr. President, your political future has hung over the NATO Summit a little bit this week. Speaker Pelosi made a point of suggesting that your decision on whether to stay in the race was still open. George Clooney and a handful- — a handful of lawmakers have called on you to step aside. Reuters is reporting tonight that UAW leadership is concerned about your ability to win.”
Biden, hilariously somewhat put off by the questino despite having called on a person off his list, said, “UAW en- — just endorsed me. But go ahead.” Mason then asked, “Thank you. My question for you is: How are you incorporating these developments into your decision to stay? And separately, what concerns do you have about Vice President Harris’s ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket?”
Funnily, it was Mason’s question that led to the “Vice President Trump” gaffe. He said, “Look, I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump [Harris] to be vice president did I think she was not qualified to be president. So, let’s start there. Number one. The fact is that — the consideration is that I think I’m the most qualified person to run for president. I beat him once, and I will beat him again.”
He continued, “Secondly, the idea — I served in the Senate a long time. The idea that senators and congressmen running for office worry about the ticket is not unusual. And I might add, there were at least five presidents running or incumbent presidents who had lower numbers than I have now later in the campaign. So, there’s a long way to go in this campaign.”
He then insisted that America is doing well, saying, “And so, I — I’m just going to keep moving. Keep moving and — because, look, I got more work to do. We’ve got more work to finish. There’s so much — we’ve made so much progress. Think about it. Think about where we are economically relative to the rest of the world. Name me a world leader who wouldn’t want to trade places with our economy. We’ve created over 800,000 manufacturing jobs, 1.5 million — I mean, so things are moving.”
Concluding his answer, Biden blamed “corporate greed” for economic issues, saying, “We got more to go. Working-class people still have — need help. Corporate greed is still at large. There are — prices — the corporate profits have doubled since the pandemic. They’re coming down. And so, I’m optimistic about where things are going.”
Watch the embarrassing interaction here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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