‘We’ve All Done It’: Joe Biden’s ‘Jackie’ Gaffe Dismissed on NBC as 'Slip of The Tongue’
13:58 GMT 03.10.2022 (Updated: 15:45 GMT 03.10.2022)
© AFP 2023 / SAUL LOEB
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Among countless gaffes and incidents of bizarre behavior performed by Joe Biden, the 79-year-old head of state recently at a White House event asked for Republican representative for Indiana's second congressional district, Jackie Walorski, who was actually killed in a car accident roughly two months ago.
US President Biden's recent gaffe regarding a dead politician was dismissed on NBC’s 'Meet the Press' on Sunday as a “slip of the tongue”.
Symone Sanders-Townsend, former spokeswoman for vice-president Kamala Harris, said that the US President’s verbal slip regarding representative Jackie Walorski was “unfortunate.”
Moderator Chuck Todd had asked Sanders-Townsend - now an MSNBC host - how she would have handled the slip-up, which the White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had refused to admit was a mistake by the POTUS. He played clips of Biden and Jean-Pierre's response.
“Look, I think it’s very clear that the president had a slip of the tongue, obviously. And I’m sure he is extremely apologetic to the family of the congresswoman if he caused them any more trauma or agony,” said Sanders-Townsend.
WATCH: At an event this week, President Biden called out for Rep. Jackie Walorski, who died this year.
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) October 2, 2022
Karine Jean-Pierre says the congresswoman was "top of mind."@SymoneDSanders: "It's very clear the president had the slip of the tongue, obviously. ... It's unfortunate." pic.twitter.com/weROJiIYS4
““Move on. It’s unfortunate. Again, life is here. He understands and empathized. I think that’s what’s most important here. And I think Karine did try to do that," Sanders-Townsend added.
Todd appeared to agree, saying: "People make mistakes, and you try to go from there."
"Yeah, yeah, we have all done it before," Sanders-Townsend replied.
Biden, the oldest sitting president in the country's history, was delivering a speech on 28 September at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. When he recognized the lawmakers who helped make the event a reality, he said “Where’s Jackie?” referring to Walorski, who died in a car crash in early August.
The White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre afterwards said repeatedly that Walorski was “top of the mind” for Biden during the event.
30 September 2022, 18:42 GMT
Amid the countless blunders and bizarre behavior by Biden, such as unsettling “whispering” into the microphone when emphasizing his point and "shaking hands with thin air”, there has been growing speculation about his cognitive decline.
Dr Nicole Saphier, a physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and assistant professor at Cornell University’s Weill Cornell Medical College, wrote in a recent op-ed for the UK's Daily Mail that this pattern of behavior of the 46th POTUS merits a deeper examination of his mental state.
“At his next annual medical examination at Walter Reed Medical Center, presumably to take place in November, President Biden should undergo a cognitive assessment, as did President Donald Trump. And those test results should be released to the American public,” Saphier asserted.
