As President Joe Biden insisted Friday he was not quitting his campaign for re-election, he flubbed the year in which he was running.
During an appearance in Wisconsin, Biden tried to meet the rising speculation that he would drop out amid fast-spreading disaffection among Democrats.
Even as he spoke, one attendee behind Biden carried a sign reading “Pass the torch, Joe,” according to the New York Post.
“There’s been a lot of speculation: What’s Joe going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? Is he going to drop out?” Biden said as he tried to create a scenario in which he was the victim of a campaign to oust him.
Just another Biden flub.
Why do they even allow him to speak like this? https://t.co/I8ChthIsuV— floridanow1 (@floridanow1) July 5, 2024
“Here’s my answer: I’m running and going to win again,” he said.
“I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party,” Biden said. “You voted for me to be your nominee — no one else.
“Some folks don’t seem to care who you voted for. Guess what? They are trying to push me out of the race. Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race,” Biden said.
Should Biden step down from the presidency?
“I will beat Donald Trump,” he said. “I will beat him again in 2020.”
Friday’s malaprop followed one Thursday that was noted by the U.K.’s Telegraph.
“By the way, I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman … to serve with a black president,” he told WURD radio.
Now Biden is proud the be the first black woman… 😂🤣
Look, I don’t know what you want from him. Trump told us he was totally shot and only had about half of his head left. https://t.co/sv5FlIFSl8 https://t.co/6AmRzmvVzh pic.twitter.com/zMSVWcnyhj
— Joe Rambo (@BrainStorm_Joe) July 5, 2024
A post by Ben Smith on Semafor suggested that issues with Biden run deeper than words and that the president might not be in the loop when policy decisions are made at the White House.
Smith did not name his source, other than saying it was an official with regular access to the West Wing, was not in Biden’s “tight inner circle,” and is “a serious person.”
“It’s unclear even to some inside the West Wing policy process which policy issues reach the president, and how. Major decisions go into an opaque circle that includes White House chief of staff, Jeff Zients (who talks to the president regularly) and return concluded,” Smith wrote.
“I’m super proud of the policies. I’m talking to you because I’m incredibly upset and scared for the country and I would like to do what I can,” Smith quoted his source as saying.
Smith said White House aides fret over the “lack of briefings to the president” and “worry about the possibility of decisions ‘being made without him.’”
