Do you know when you don’t want to be telling unnecessary jokes which don’t make much sense, even when one reads the official transcript put out by your people? President Joe Biden, on the week in which Democrats seem to be slowly coming to the conclusion he needs to be replaced atop the presidential ticket.
Do you know when said joke really doesn’t need your words to be slurred in a way that those watching the event are left wondering whether you just made an untoward, vulgar remark about the secretary-general of NATO? President Joe Biden, on the week in which Democrats seem to be slowly coming to the conclusion he needs to be replaced atop the presidential ticket.
Do you know this happened to on Tuesday night? Take a guess. Just take a wild guess.
Yes, President Joe Biden — who told donors he is “done talking about the debate” in which his performance was poor enough that his own party seems to be slowly agreeing he can’t be the nominee despite a strongly worded letter released on Monday morning — couldn’t do the vigorous campaigning he’d hoped to do to shore up his eroding base because this is the week the North Atlantic Treaty Organization meets to commemorate its 75th anniversary.
The stories were supposed to be about Biden’s “new commitments to help Ukraine bolster its air defense against Russia” announced during his address in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday evening, as per CNBC. And, indeed, that did make stories — as it should, since our involvement in the Ukraine conflict is one of critical issues of this campaign.
However, as CNBC also noted, Biden made the speech “as his reelection campaign teeters.” And, if one needed evidence as to why it was teetering, consider the clip that went viral on social media after the speech Tuesday night:
Awkward moment from Biden at NATO pic.twitter.com/S586BTo3pu
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 9, 2024
What in the world did Biden say about this guy’s wife??
pic.twitter.com/iMI2RzAtHx— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 9, 2024
Is Biden mentally fit?
President Henny Youngman, ladies and gentlemen. Take NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s wife. Please! Thank you. I’ll be here all weekend. Try the steak.
However the joke was supposed to land, it also didn’t help that the words were slurred so badly that numerous users on social media also thought Biden had completely lost leave of his senses and was saying, “I realize, as I was f***ing your wife, I personally asked you to extend your service. Forgive me.”
Now, obviously he isn’t quite that far gone, or else he would have tendered his resignation shortly after the speech. And, to be fair, the official White House transcript of the event makes slightly — and I do emphasize slightly — more sense of it.
“Mr. Secretary, you’ve guided this alliance through one of the most consequential periods in its history. I realize I — as I was talking to your wife — I personally asked you to extend your service. [Laughs.] Forgive me. [Laughter.] And you put your own plans on hold,” the transcript reads.
Obviously, no “dirty” joke (maybe awkward and poorly-timed), if perhaps no obvious sense made to anyone who isn’t the secretary general or his wife, either.
However, do you know when it’s time to play it absolutely straight and not ad lib jokes about people’s wives that sound like inside baseball even when the White House transcript doctors play with it? If and when you are the sitting president of the United States, people complain that you are both incoherent and slurry with your remarks, and both of those things are part of the reason why your own party is rapidly coming to the conclusion that you cannot serve another four years in office.
Which is, even Joe Biden would admit, where he found himself Tuesday evening at the NATO event.
Yet, he couldn’t stop himself from going forward with a “hey, let me insert a funny about the NATO secretary here” and was still absolutely certain this wouldn’t be another bad-viral Biden moment at the exact time at which he could least afford a bad-viral Biden moment.
And what did we end up with? A bad-viral Biden moment. What a surprise. It was a little past half-after 5 p.m. — and, as we know from prior reports, this is a guy who’s only really vital between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Yes, it may have been minor, but this was another straw on the back of a camel which had long been buried under a pile of straws and needs to dig itself out in the next week or two before the Democrats leave it buried for good. It was yet more proof that, given enough of a chance to, Biden will put himself deeper into the mess he’s made for himself.
This is a president who has lost all self-preservation skills. It would be a kindness to take him off his own re-election bid, both for the Democrats and for Biden himself. Both parties, inasmuch as the latter can be considered to be in compos mentis, refuse to do it. They deserve whatever whirlwind they reap.
