During a campaign event in Detroit, Michigan, at which he addressed an NAACP gathering and railed against former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden made another wild gaffe, this time seeming to suggest that he was the Vice President during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. The corrected White House transcript provides that he meant to refer to the 2008 Great Recession, not the pandemic.
During the speech, President Biden appeared to suggest while speaking about his experience in Detroit that, when the pandemic hit, President Barack Obama was in the White House and had dispatched him to Auto City to guide the response.
He said, “And I love Detroit for three reasons. Number one, my dad was an automobile manager. Detroit put food on our table every night. Oh, not a joke. Not a joke. And when I was vice president, things were kind of bad during the pandemic, and what happened was Barack said to me, “Go to Detroit and help fix it.” Well, poor mayor, he spent more time with me than he ever thought he was going to have to. God love you.”The corrected transcript of the speech provided by the White House Briefing Room notes that when President Biden said “pandemic” in that part of the speech, he meant to say “recession,” which would make far more sense given that he and Obama were in office during the 2008-09 “Great Recession,” but not during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other gaffes followed. For example, immediately afterward, he said, “Folks, I’m humbled to receive this organization, which defines the character and consequence of what we do. I’m always grateful to Derrick Johnson, the leadership for the NAACP.” The corrected transcript notes that he meant to say “award,” not “organization,” which again makes more sense.
Then, a few moments later, he kept stumbling over his words and said, “All the members of the congressional ge- — the delegation and all other local leaders. Look, folks, I just came from Atlanta, where I delivered a commencement at Morehouse College. (Applause.) It was truly inspiresing: over 400 young Black men who will do extraordinary things.” Again, the corrected transcript had to step in and note that he meant to say “inspiring,” not “inspiresing.”
He also butchered the number when trying to comment on healthcare premiums, overstating by 10x how much he has allegedly saved families. That came when he said, “On my watch, more Black Americans have health insurance than ever in all of history. I protected and expanded the Affordable Care Act, saving millions of families $800,000 in prem- — $8,000 in — a year in premiums.” The corrected transcript notes that the correct number is “$800” not “$8000.”
Watch Biden here:
In another unfortunate gaffe, Biden said that his administration is cracking down on “landlords who keep rents down,” meaning to say that he’s cracking down on landlords to make them keep rents down. He said, in the corrected transcript, “We’re increasing access to capital to start business and loans to buy homes. We’re cracking down on corporate landlords who [to] keep rents down. Our policies are resulting in historic lows of Black unemployment. Black small businesses are starting up at the fastest rate they have in 30 years. We’re opening the doors to generational wealth. In fact, the racial wealth gap is its lowest level in 20 years. But there’s much more to do.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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