President Joe Biden did an interview with CNN on Wednesday, May 8, and, as might be expected of the aging president, it went less than well for him. In fact, when speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett in Wisconsin, Biden angered many with his comments about the economy and made yet another unfortunate gaffe that led to much mockery online.
The interview was full of awkward moments, however, not just one. One came when he tried, and probably failed, to strike an election-minded balance between supporting the protests without infuriating his Jewish supporters and donors, saying, “There is a legitimate right to free speech and protest. There’s a legitimate right to do that and they have a right to do that. But there’s not a legitimate right to use hate speech. There’s not a legitimate right to threaten Jewish students. There is not a legitimate right to block people’s access to class. That’s against the law.”
At another point, Burnett told him, “Grocery prices are up 30 percent, even more than 30 percent since the beginning of the pandemic, that’s a real day-to-day pain that people feel.” Responding, Biden bizarrely blamed “corporate greed” for inflation, saying, that shrinkflation caused by “corporate greed” is the real issue, not government spending.
Responding to Burnett, Biden said, “It really is, and it’s real. but the fact is that people have the money to spend.” He continued, “For example, the whole notion of shrinkflation. Snickers did a thing and it’s 20 percent less for the same price, and it’s corporate greed. It’s corporate greed, and we’ve got to deal with it and that’s what I’m working on.”
But though those moments were awkward and led to mockery of Biden, by far the worst gaffe came when Biden tried to comment on the state of protests at America’s universities, where students are protesting against America’s policy toward Israel and supporting its war effort against Hamas in Gaza. Instead of doing so effectively, he awkwardly bounced been subjects after stumbling over his words.
He said, awkwardly stumbling over his words and bouncing between topics, “If you look at the data, these demonstrations are real but they’re not nearly, I mean, look, and everybody — I made a speech on the Holocaust the other day.” The RNC Research X account, posting about the incident, said that Biden was “confused again.”
Watch him here:
The comments, as could be expected, were savage. One commenter argued that the election debates, and indeed election generally, will be “hilarious,” saying, “This election is going to be hilarious. He can’t even do a scripted interview with CNN which is basically a network run by the DNC. Wait till he faces actual questions. If he ever does.”
Another argued that putting someone so senile in front of the camera amounts to “elder abuse,” saying, “It’s elder abuse that he’s still trying to be a president, really. America knows this. It is known.” Yet another added that Biden’s response was “Nonsensical gibberish.” Still another commenter said, “If a flooded carburetor was a person.”
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