I wrote on Tuesday about how Kamala Harris spoke to young African leaders at the U.S. Africa Summit.
She tried to sound profound but it lost something in the translation as it was the same remarks, complete with the same hand motions, that she’s pulled out many times in the past. So if the leaders thought that they were getting some special praise (if they could even figure out what she was saying), they would have been sadly mistaken.
But Wednesday was Joe Biden’s turn. He spoke during another part of the Summit, the U.S. Africa Business Forum. To say it didn’t go well would probably be an understatement. You would think that they would have him review speeches before he gives them, given his inability to understand what he is saying or sound coherent. But that surely wasn’t the case with these remarks. It looked not only like he had no idea what he was saying, but that he couldn’t see what the teleprompter said, despite it being huge. So he just made a complete mess of it.
The Prosper Africa Deal Room is a virtual room — a U.S. government initiative — where people work to hook up deals between Africa and U.S. businesses. It started under President Donald Trump, not Joe Biden. But if you listen to Joe talk about it, I’m not sure he has any idea what it is when we listen to what he says here. But he’ll surely take credit for it.
“That sounds like something we shouldn’t be saying, you know, Prosper Africa Deal Room,” Biden said. “I kept asking, ‘Where’s the Deal Room?’ I think I’m looking at it.” If there’s anyone who knows about backroom deals, it probably would be Joe Biden.
How long has COVID been around now? Most of us stopped paying attention to it long ago. But Joe Biden is still talking about it, except even after all this time, he’s still having issues with it.
But then you start seeing the fight with the teleprompter, as he leans to his left to try to see it better. But it doesn’t work, as he trips all over himself because he doesn’t know what he’s saying.
Then it completely falls apart.
I’m sorry. I’m good at “Biden-ese” but this is even beyond me what he’s trying to say here. So I’m willing to bet it was beyond a lot of the folks in the audience as well. What the world must be thinking — what must African leaders be thinking when they hear gibberish like this?
Biden finished off with his brain seeming to glitch out mid-remark.
He was supposed to say, “Let me give you a few highlights of the deals that have been made.” But he didn’t seem to understand that, even.
The only thing he does seem to understand is deals that send all our money overseas and things that help his family.