What went wrong, the teleprompter or the president?
When anti-gun activists, the mainstream media and President Joe Biden turned out on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday to celebrate the so-called Safer Communities Act, it was an occasion to pay attention to.
For Democrats, it was a signature issue. For Biden, it was a signature gaffe — a boneheaded moment to remind Americans once again that the man who holds the presidency isn’t fit to run a PTA.
Addressing the crowds and the cameras, Biden showed off his gun-grabbing bona fides to celebrate the latest attack on the Second Amendment by office holders who have sworn to uphold the Constitution (some of them, unfortunately, are Republicans who should know better).
And the president promptly misstated the date of one of the most infamous school shootings in American history — by 100 years.
BIDEN: “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School 1918, 17 dead, 17 injured.”
Hey Joe, that shooting happened in 2018. pic.twitter.com/xhumYrESlM
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 11, 2022
“Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 1918, 17 dead, 17 injured,” Biden said, squinting straight ahead as he apparently read the words from a screen.
The Parkland shooting wasn’t in 1918. It was in February 2018, a full century later.
Do you think Joe Biden will serve all four years of his term?
And even though it might seem like it sometimes, Biden wasn’t around to remember what was going on in February 1918, when Woodrow Wilson was president, World War I was in its final year and the Spanish flu hadn’t even gotten started on its rampage around the world.
Anyone who follows politics even casually knows Biden has a long, embarrassing record of public gaffes that raise serious questions about whether his brain is fully engaged to the muscles mouthing his words.
But failing to speak accurately about a crime that horrified the country — and led to the “March for Our Lives” publicity stunt in the nation’s capital six weeks later — betrays just how insincere Biden’s braying actually is.
And social media users noticed:
This is getting insane America he can’t even read off the Teleprompter.
— Jason Burgos (@JasonBu00161695) July 11, 2022
Someone make it stop!!!! ?
— Michael (@MJL0807) July 11, 2022
But this one nails the real issue:
It’s not the @POTUS age we should be worried about, it’s the lack of competency!
— Sherry (@SherrySBoyd) July 11, 2022
“It’s not the @POTUS age we should be worried about,” the user wrote, “it’s the lack of competency.”
Exactly.
If this were the first time Biden stumbled like this, it would be one thing. If it were one of only a few times, it would be another. Presidents are human like the rest of us.
But this is different. It’s just the latest in a long, long litany of Biden’s unforced errors that are enough to make even sympathetic viewers wonder if he’s got it all together upstairs.
The fact that he did it about an event that left 17 children and adults dead (and inflicted the public career of the insufferable David Hogg on an undeserving nation) simply makes it unforgivable.
It doesn’t really matter so much whether it was on the teleprompter here. The problem is the president.
He isn’t fit to lead the country. Sane Americans know it. His own party knows it. And, assuming he has lucid moments, it’s a good chance Biden knows it, too.
Thanks to the grace of God and the wisdom of the Founders, Americans will have a chance to correct this situation, starting with November’s midterms. After that, 2024 is within shouting distance.
And Americans can end this embarrassment once and for all.
