Gaffes from President Joe Biden are nothing new, but his latest verbal blunder has some wondering if it is the beginning of the end of his political career.
The commander in chief appeared to confuse the teleprompter instructions with the actual script during a campaign speech in Washington, D.C., this week.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn was joined by Josh Hammer, host of America on Trial with Josh Hammer, and Sara Gonzales, host of Sara Gonzales Unfiltered, to discuss the embarrassing slip-up and how it may impact the 2024 election.
Biden’s ‘Pause’ Line
Biden made an appearance at a conference of the North American Building Trades Unions (NABTU) on Wednesday to accept the group’s endorsement.
During his prepared remarks, the forty-sixth president tried to paint presumed GOP nominee Donald Trump as being anti-union and a defender of the wealthy. He called his opponent’s economic policies the “Mar-a-Lago” plan compared to his own “Scranton” plan.
But the working-class message was lost in the shuffle of what turned into Biden’s latest awkward gaffe. While reading from the teleprompter, the president seemingly incorporated the embedded script cues with the script itself.
BIDEN: I see an America where we defend democracy, not diminish it. I see an America where we protect freedoms, not take them away. I see an economy that grows a lot in the bottom up where the wealthy pay their fair share, so we can have child care, paid leave and so much more, and still reduce the federal deficit and increase economic folks.
Imagine what we could do next. Four more years, pause.
The “pause” was clearly supposed to be an applause break had Biden not read through it. Lucky for him, the crowd appeared to be clued into their role in the event and jumped in with a “four more years” chant as he chuckled. “The chant was clearly completely staged,” Gonzales noted. “They couldn’t trust the audience to be that enthusiastic. They had to map it all out.”
In her view, that is the only way to explain what happened. “Unfortunately, they overestimated Joe Biden’s ability to read from a teleprompter,” Gonzales said. “It’s very clear [in a teleprompter] when they want you to pause. It’s written differently in the prompter. There is no reason for him to make this mistake, other than the fact that the man is half dead.”
‘It’s a Problem’
Verbal miscues from Biden are nothing new, but they do hit a little different as the November election draws nearer. “As critical as I am of Joe Biden and as aware as I am that this is basically a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency, I still cannot believe this happened,” Gonzales said. “This man has been in public service for, what, 40 or 50 years and still cannot read a teleprompter.”
In Hammer’s view, Biden’s mental acuity and the state of the world make the otherwise humorous gaffe no laughing matter. “He obviously is senile,” he said. “But the world is on fire right now, the universities are on fire, and all of our enemies are looking at that stuff… and getting a bigger laugh out of it than the three of us just did.”
While Megyn said her career in media has shown her there “are some real doofuses” who don’t know how to read a teleprompter, those people “don’t normally become” president of the United States. “It’s a problem,” she concluded. “He’s got the nuclear codes, and we’ve got some savvy enemies watching every minute of it.”
You can check out Megyn’s interview with Gonzales and Hammer by tuning in to episode 776 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.