It’s no secret President Joe Biden is no longer in his prime physical and cognitive state.
The 80-year-old isn’t just a serial liar. He’s a chronic gaffe machine who puts the country at risk pretty much every time he opens his mouth. The president is so bad at giving speeches that Generation Z made some of his most notable verbal stumbles into a TikTok trend.
Contrary to corporate media claims, these blunders aren’t just byproducts of Biden’s childhood stutter, they are signs of a bigger problem. Here are 10 gaffes from the grandpa in the White House that should make every American question whether he’s just a figurehead.
1. Biden Forgets What Year It Is
Biden started off 2022 strong with a New Year’s-themed White House address in which he forgot what year it is.
“There’s a lot of reason to be hopeful in 2020,” Biden said.
2. Biden Cusses Out Journalist on Hot Mic
A hot mic caught Biden calling Fox News’s Peter Doocy a “stupid son of a b-tch” during a White House photo op in January of 2022.
“Do you think inflation’s a political liability in the midterms?” Doocy asked as reporters were rushed to the exit.
“It’s a great asset, more inflation,” Biden said. “What a stupid son of a b-tch.”
3. Biden Calls For Regime Change in Russia (and Meant It)
Hardly a slip of the tongue, one of Biden’s most problematic statements came in March when he publicly called for regime change in Russia.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden declared about Vladimir Putin during a speech in Warsaw, Poland.
Regime change in Russia is the unofficial policy of our ruling class, but the corporate media, unwilling to admit it, called Biden’s outburst a “gaffe.” The White House, similarly, couldn’t decide between standing by Biden’s comments or downplaying them as simple “moral outrage” toward Putin.
4. ‘Repeat the Line’
In July, during a speech about his new abortion-focused executive order, Biden struggled to properly vocalize the script on his teleprompter.
Clips of the speech clearly show the gaffe-prone president saying, “End of quote. Repeat the line.” The White House transcript of Biden’s address, however, claims Biden said, “End of quote. Let me repeat the line.”
When pressed about the retroactive edits, White House Assistant Press Secretary Emilie Simons tried to gaslight her Twitter followers into believing Biden wasn’t really reading cues directly from the teleprompter.
“No. He said, ‘let me repeat that line,’” she wrote.
5. Biden Falsely Claims He Had Cancer
In a “climate crisis” speech about fossil fuels in Massachusetts in July, Biden incorrectly claimed he has cancer caused by oil pollution. Biden said that growing up, pollution in Delaware was so bad that his mother had to use windshield wipers to “get literally the oil slick off the window.”
“That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up [with] have cancer,” Biden said.
The White House physician rushed to release a statement clarifying that Biden does not, in fact, have cancer.
6. Biden Says Troops Are ‘Selfish’
During a trip to the Middle East in July, Biden mixed up the words “selfish” and “selfless” at the most inconvenient time possible.
“We’ll always honor the bravery and selfishness — selflessness,” Biden said. “And sacrifices of the Americans who served, including my son, Major Beau Biden, who was stationed in Iraq for a year.”
7. Biden Calls the Holocaust Honorable
During a visit to Israel, Biden claimed he was there to “keep alive the truth and honor of the Holocaust.”
“And continue — which we must do every, every day — continue to bear witness, to keep alive the truth and honor of the Holocaust,” Biden said.
He later corrected himself by saying the “horror of the Holocaust.”
8. ‘Where’s Jackie?’
Perhaps the worst of Biden’s 2022 blunders was when he tried to call upon Rep. Jackie Walorski weeks after she died in a car accident in her home state of Indiana.
“Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? She must not be here,” Biden said at the Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Sept 28.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tried to brush off Biden’s mistake by claiming Walorski was “on top of mind.”
“These moments of confusion are happening with increased frequency, Karine,” one reporter, unsatisfied with Jean-Pierre’s answer, shouted above the hubbub.
Polling conducted shortly after the Jackie incident found that a majority of Americans, including Democrats, were at least “somewhat concerned” about Biden’s mental state.
9. A ‘Mental Focus’ Word Salad
Biden isn’t particularly fond of people questioning his cognitive abilities, and his attempts to convince Americans he is mentally equipped for office, or even a walk in the park, fall short.
“How would you say your mental focus is?” CBS’s Scott Pelley asked during a “60 Minutes” interview in October.
“Oh, it’s focused,” Biden replied. “I’d say it’s, it is, I haven’t… look. I have trouble even mentioning, even saying to myself, in my own head, the number of years. I no more think of myself as being old as I am than fly.”
During an interview the following month, Biden appeared to fall asleep mid-answer.
10. Biden Gets Lost on Stage
Even when he’s not speaking, Biden shows severe signs of mental impairment. Shortly after his speech during the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment Conference in New York, Biden appeared to get lost on the stage before eventually finding his way down.