US President Joe Biden was in Virginia Beach on Tuesday giving a speech for a health care event that has since turned heads among shocked netizens.
The commander-in-chief opened his speech by addressing his own health care treatment in 1988 for two life-threatening brain aneurysms, and spoke about a particular nurse who treated him there.
"I had a nurse named Pearl Nelson. She'd come in and do things I don't think you learn in nursing school," he said to a laughing crowd. "She'd whisper in my ear, I couldn't understand, but she'd whisper and she'd lean down. And actually breathe on me to make sure there was a connection, a human connection."
Netizen Greg Price was quick to point out that Biden has shared this cringe-inducing anecdote before, tweeting a clip from July 22, 2020.
"What a strange thing for a president of the United States to say," KCEN news anchor Kris Radcliffe commented.
"President Joe Biden making it weird for everyone," said Steve Guest, Senator Ted Cruz's communications adviser.
During his speech he addressed the medical professionals in the crowd saying: “You docs are good, but if there's any angels in heaven, they're the nurses, male and female.”
“And you look at the monitors and you know if the line goes flat you're dead,” the president said, crediting the nurse at Walter Reed Hospital for making him want to live again. “But you just get tired, even when you're not in pain, you just want to quit.”
“And the nurses at Walter Reed Hospital. Would come up, and they'd rub my face, they'd whisper in my ear. They'd get close and tell me, it's going to be okay. They made a difference in my life,” he said.
After the awkward anecdote the president’s speech focused on Republicans attacking Medicaid and Obamacare in order to meet budget demands.
The speech comes after Biden’s repeated criticism of Senator Rick Scott’s (R-FL) sunset plan, which the lawmaker had planned to apply to Social Security, Medicare and sections of the military. He has since amended his proposal after criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.