Gaffes, Mistakes & Bloodshed: Scandals That Enveloped Joe Biden in 2023

With 2023 coming to a close, it is worth reflecting on US President Joe Biden’s third year in office and all the gaffes, stumbles and mistakes he made along the way.

Throughout 2022, former President Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified documents was a huge story, and with a trial against Trump still ongoing, it inarguably remained a massive story for much of 2023.

But the media world was shocked when it learned that Biden, who once called Trump’s poor handling of classified documents “totally irresponsible,” had stored classified documents he took while serving as vice president to a think tank office in Virginia and in the garage of his home in Delaware.

Earlier this month, US media reported that special counsel Robert Hur is not expected to file charges in the case; however, the “double standards” on how the Biden and Trump cases were handled was not lost on Republicans, with many questioning why an FBI raid was not held on Biden’s properties as it had been done with his predecessor.

Elsewhere, while Biden has continuously suffered from poor approval ratings, the classified docs case has only seen Trump’s rating among supporters skyrocket as his case and others have continued to work their way through the justice system.

Tensions with China were already high in 2022 after then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) visited with separatist leaders in Taiwan, angering the Chinese government. Things only got weirder in 2023 when a balloon appeared in the skies off the coast of Alaska.

The US government claimed it was a Chinese spy balloon. The Chinese government insisted it was an independent weather observation balloon that had blown off course. The media tracked the balloon as it flew over Canada into the United States and across the country. Republicans called Biden weak for not shooting it down immediately, China warned the US against shooting down the object.

In the end, Biden waited for the balloon to cross the US before shooting it down off the coast of South Carolina, angering China and not satisfying Republicans.

Bizarrely, multiple other balloons and other unidentified objects appeared over US and Canadian airspace, most of which were again shot down, but little explanation was given about what the objects actually were. A Boy Scout group claimed their weather balloon experiment vanished around this time, though the State Department denied the possibility they were responsible for its disappearance.

Relations between China and the US started off-base and ended worse in 2023. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen visited then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in the US in April, causing sino-US tensions to grow further throughout the year.

However, Biden had a plan. Chinese President Xi Jinping was one of the world leaders hosted in San Francisco during the APEC summit. It was the perfect opportunity to smooth things over with the world’s largest industrial manufacturer.

According to Biden during a post-meeting presser, things went well. Biden said the two leaders discussed shared issues and reestablished military-to-military contact in an attempt to reduce misunderstandings.

All seemed to be going to plan until, after declaring the engagement over, Biden decided to take one more question:

“Mr. President, after today, would you still refer to President Xi as a ‘dictator’? This is a term that you used earlier this year,” asked the reporter.

“Well, look, he is,” the commander-in-chief replied, drawing near-instant condemnation from the government Biden had just worked hard to court. A clip capturing Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s reaction to Biden’s comments went viral in the following days. Blinken later claimed the visible wince was due to a sore neck.

In February, a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, causing a fire. Rather than attempt to douse the flames, city, state and Norfolk officials made the decision to initiate a controlled demolition of the substances.

The resulting explosion sent dangerous chemicals into the air, soil and water. Residents were evacuated, being told they could return less than a week after the derailment and three days after the explosion.

But months later, residents in East Palestine were still sounding alarms about health issues they believed were linked to the chemicals and several videos went viral, seeming to show an oily rainbow film over nearby streams and in muddy soil.

According to US media, by August 2023, Biden had spent nearly four out of every 10 days away from the White House, primarily at his two homes in Delaware and the presidential retreat Camp David in Maryland.

Meanwhile, Biden’s likely opponent in the 2024 presidential election scored some points with voters in the swing state after he visited East Palestine the same month the crash happened. The former president called the federal response to the accident a “betrayal.”

Biden’s lack of empathy for disaster victims arose again after it took 13 days for him to visit Hawaii after devastating wildfires killed more than 100 people. When the US president finally showed up, he attempted to connect with the victims by recounting a house fire that “almost” cost him his car and cat, sparking more outrage.

“Lightning struck at home, on a little lake that's outside of our home—not a lake, a big pond—and hit a wire that came up underneath our home into the heating ducts and air conditioning ducts,” the president said. “To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my '67 Corvette, and my cat.”

Reports from the time described the 2004 fire as “small” and “contained to the kitchen,” noting there were no injuries and it was contained within 20 minutes.

Biden’s poll numbers have never been great, but they did see a slight bump following the start of Russia’s special military operation in 2022. During a speech in Warsaw, Poland, a month later he proclaimed the American people stand with Ukraine and urged NATO and the EU to remain unified “today and tomorrow and the day after and for the years and decades to come.”

It was a sentiment he repeated often throughout 2022 and 2023, but throughout the year, the American people and some NATO allies turned against Biden’s proxy war against Russia.

The souring public opinion on Ukraine led the Republican party, which included a small faction opposed to funding at the start of the conflict, to completely turn against further aid. Even US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who, along with the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) infamously encouraged Ukrainian marines to break the Minsk ceasefire agreement in 2017, came out against sending more aid to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, parliamentary elections in Slovakia in September ushered in Prime Minister Robert Fico, who ran on a promise to end all aid to Ukraine and in November the Slovak parliament confirmed that agenda.

That wasn’t the only break in NATO on the Ukraine issue. In December, Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban blocked €50 billion in aid earmarked for Ukraine and promised to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

On the subject of the other conflict the US is fueling - Israel’s bombing campaign and invasion of Gaza, Biden has fared even worse.

According to a poll released earlier this month, 57% of Americans disapprove of his handling of the situation, compared to just 33% who approve. The same poll found that some one-third of respondents felt as though the Biden White House was being too supportive of Israel’s actions.

Despite taking a slightly harsher tone with the Israeli government, Biden and administration officials have repeatedly refused to set any red-lines that would make the US reconsider sending aid and weapons to Israel.

The US has blocked several calls for a ceasefire by the UN Security Council, being the only member state to vote against it, thereby vetoing it.

Multiple human rights organizations have warned about a humanitarian crisis in the area. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel’s operation began and more than 570,000 are starving, according to the UN.

The Biden administration’s steadfast support of Israel’s viscous military campaign has resulted in plummeting polls for Biden among his base, and growing calls from within his own party to shift the administration’s Israel strategy.

Additionally, a steady stream of pro-Palestinian protests have broken out across the country and Biden has been bleeding support among minorities and young voters, a situation that is almost certain to doom his reelection campaign if he cannot reverse the trend before November.

There have been some interesting first son and daughter controversies in the White House. Neil Bush, the son of former US President George H. W. Bush was sued by federal regulators for alleged “conflict-of-interest regulation” violations. Donald Trump Jr. shot an endangered deer in Mongolia. Malia Obama got caught smoking. The Bush twins were cited for underage drinking and allegedly partied with American actor Ashton Kutcher, which seemed like a big deal at the time.

But no first family controversy appears to hold a candle to the much-talked-about presidential son, Hunter Biden. To be fair, Hunter is also considered the most exposed first son in history. He allegedly abandoned a laptop at a Delaware repair shop, the contents of which were eventually leaked to the media just prior to the 2020 election.

According to the House Oversight Committee, which is heading the ongoing investigation into the Biden family, payments were allegedly routed through Hunter and the president’s brother James Biden before ending up in Joe’s hands.

Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) showcased evidence of at least two examples of James Biden depositing money into Joe Biden’s account following payments by an American hospital operator and a Chinese company into Hunter or James Biden accounts.

Throughout his campaign and presidency, Biden repeatedly denied he met or spoke with his son’s business associates or discussed business with him.

In early December, House Republicans voted to formally open an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. The White House, as it has since the start of the investigation, decried it as politically motivated.

“I did not. And it’s just a bunch of lies. They’re lies. I did not. They’re lies,” the president told reporters in December, despite documents put forth by congressional lawmakers.

Hunter Biden was also indicted on gun and tax charges, though those are unlikely to blow back on his father.

Hunter also appeared to cause his father’s administration a few more headaches over the summer when cocaine was found in the White House; however, the Secret Service closed the case without a suspect after two weeks. Despite a mass finger-pointing at Hunter due to his past with illicit drugs, the White House insisted it didn’t belong to anyone in the Biden family - including Hunter, who was there just before it was discovered.

It is possible that the reason Biden continues to deny meeting with Hunter’s associates is that he doesn’t remember meeting them.

Age was an issue for Biden even during his campaign, but rewatching clips from 2020, he looks sprightly compared to present day - although that can be said of many presidents pre- and post-White House. Biden started his presidency older than his predecessors, and it shows.

The 81-year-old president has looked lost while trying to find his way off stage, regularly stumbled over words, said the October 7 surprise attack by Hamas happened 65 years ago, confused popular celebrities Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Britney Spears in a single sentence, tripped over a wire while giving a speech, falsely claimed he was at Ground Zero the day after September 11, and got confused about where to go while watching the reef laying at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Some 77% of Americans, including a whopping 69% of Democrats, admitted in August that they have concerns about Biden’s age, questioning whether he is mentally and physically fit enough to serve for another term.

“I tell you what, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go to bed,” Biden said after a 26-minute conference in Hanoi, Vietnam. The September blip didn't help improve the president’s image, instead prompting more questions about the commander-in-chief’s mental acuity.