If you looked at Joe Biden's public schedule this weekend, it might have seemed that he had no serious issues on his plate and that American hostages weren't being held by Hamas terrorists.
What was he doing on Sunday? Going to a showing of "Wonka" for military members and their families. He was also going to a "Friendsgiving" event with service members and their families from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Gerald R. Ford at Naval Station Norfolk.
Despite reports about the administration potentially moving closer to a deal regarding the hostages, Biden acted as though he had no idea about anything. "When will more hostages get out?" a reporter asked.
"I'm not in a position to tell you that," Biden replied. That's a fascinating answer. He's supposed to be the leader of the free world, yet that response sounds like he doesn't know what's going on. Or maybe he was told, "Don't say anything until it's locked down" because of his propensity for gaffes. His underlings gave more of an answer than that - saying things like the deal is close, there are still some things to be settled, yada yada.
When Biden arrived at the Friendsgiving event with the service members and their families, he made a few remarks that went south and he seemed confused.
He told service members, "Many of you were right here not long ago when you sent your troops off."
He also told a rambling story about Beau. At some point, he seemed to realize he shouldn't be talking about him so much when the event was about these families and not him. It sounded like maybe he'd been told by the powers that be behind the scenes not to talk about him, so he stopped after a minute or so.
But then came the comment to a little girl. After making his general remarks, he saw her and made a beeline over to her, telling her that he "loved her ears." She appeared to be wearing something like Mickey Mouse ears. "I love 'em! They're really cool," he said to the child.
He asks her name and she says, "Katherine."
He responded, "That's my mommy's name."
Then he asked how old she was, 17? She replied that she was six years old. No, Joe, six and 17 are not the same thing. And it's creepy to talk to a little girl about her appearance.
He then tells her four-year-old brother he's going to have to watch out for her, as his sister did for him.
You can see Jill pursing her lips and getting tense in the background when he does this. She knows that it's going to be picked up by the media.
Can he just stop talking to little girls? And acting like they're 17? This isn't the first time. Heck, it isn't even the first time he's made strange comments to a little girl at a military family event.
This was from May 2021, and the child he talked about as looking like she was 19 was in reality six years old.
I get his people seem unable for whatever reason to stop him from talking about Beau, or the late Amtrak conductor Angelo Negri, or a host of other things that he shouldn't be talking about or that aren't true. But at least get this right - stop the sidling up to little girls; it continues to just be downright creepy.