Joe Biden’s worst gaffes of all time
October 3, 2022
“Every once in a while I make a mistake,” President Biden said in May 2022. “Like, well, once a speech.”
He was being modest. Over five decades in public life, the former vice president and longtime US senator built a reputation as America’s premier gaffe-meister, winning the White House in 2020 despite a long history of racist comments, snide asides, and enraged diatribes against voters.
And the rigors of the office have, if anything, worsened the problem for Biden, 79, the oldest president in US history.
Since his inauguration, Biden’s verbal stumbles, overblown claims, and outright fabrications have caused endless headaches for the staffers who must clean up — or try to prevent — his rhetorical messes.
“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f–k things up,” as his onetime boss, President Barack Obama, reportedly put it.
The Post combed through White House transcripts to identify scores of instances in which President Biden’s chronic case of foot-in-mouth confused us, bemused us, and nearly set off international incidents. Here are 33 of his most memorable gaffes — so far.
Biden
claimed to “have cancer” during a speech about global warming, in which
he described emissions from oil refineries near his childhood home in
Claymont, Del.
“Where’s Jackie?” September 28, 2022
One of Biden’s most atrocious verbal misfires in his long career of gaffes came when he sought out Indiana Rep. Jackie Walorski at a White House conference — eight weeks after her high-profile death.
“Representative Jackie — are you here? Where’s Jackie?” the president asked from the podium, peering futilely about the room. “I think she was going to be here,” he added.
Biden had released a lengthy statement mourning Walorski when she died in a horrific car crash.
His obvious mental fog sparked a reporter revolt at that day’s press briefing, as press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted her boss simply had the late congresswoman “top of mind” — but never explained why he thought she was still alive.
“Bless his heart for trying,” Walorski’s brother Keith Walorski told The Post. “He’s forgetful. I don’t think anybody would look at the things that he’s done and said and say that his mind is as sharp as it used to be.”
Cancer Reveal, July 20, 2022
A July speech about climate change led Biden to make a startling health admission.
“You had to put on your windshield wipers to get, literally, the oil slick off the window,” Biden said, recalling how nearby refineries soiled his childhood neighborhood in Delaware.
“That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up have cancer,” he declared.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates tried to wave the comment away by pointing to “non-melanoma skin cancers” that Biden had treated years ago.
But Bates could not explain why his boss used the present tense to discuss his cancer condition — or why Biden previously used the oily-windshield yarn to claim that he had asthma.
Biden inadvertently insulted the US military while giving remarks at the Gulf Cooperation Council in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Selfish Troops, July 16, 2022
Biden’s rocky 2022 trip to the Middle East featured a verbal slip that made a Cabinet member cringe.
“For the first time since 9/11, an American president is visiting this region without American troops being engaged … in a combat mission in the region,” Biden said as he delivered remarks to the Gulf Cooperation Council in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“We’ll always honor the bravery and selfishness — selflessness,” he said, correcting himself. “And sacrifices of the Americans who served, including my son, Major Beau Biden, who was stationed in Iraq for a year.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken flinched and shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the commander-in-chief accidentally smeared the US military.
On the same trip to the Middle East, Biden called the Holocaust an “honor” instead of a horror.
“Honor” of the Holocaust, July 13, 2022
When Biden visited Israel in 2022, he marred the arrival ceremony with an embarrassing mistake as he robotically read through a five-minute speech.
“I will once more return to the hollow ground of Yad Shav… — Vashem to honor the 6 million Jewish lives were stolen in a genocide,” he said, speaking of Jerusalem’s famed Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
“And continue — which we must do every, every day — continue to bear witness, to keep alive the truth and honor of the Holocaust” – before correcting himself to say “horror of the Holocaust” instead.
While giving a speech about gun control, Biden shouted at a man who lost his son in a shooting and told him to “Sit down!”Scolds Parkland Dad, July 11, 2022
Biden’s performance at a White House celebration of a new gun-control law was nothing short of gaffe-tastic.
First, he yelled at a grieving father who lost his 17-year-old son in the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at a Florida high school.
“Sit down! You’ll hear what I have to say,” Biden snapped at Manuel Oliver, as the bereaved dad angrily heckled the president for not doing more to curb gun crime.
Three minutes later, Biden confused his centuries as he described the horrific attack that killed Oliver’s child.
“Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida — 1918, 17 dead, 17 injured,” the president railed, without realizing his mistake.
Senator or President? May 2, 2022
Fifteen months after his presidential inauguration, Biden still had a hard time remembering his job title — reverting on occasion to calling himself a senator, the role he held for 36 years before becoming vice president in 2009.
“There have not been many of the senators from Delaware. It’s a small state,” Biden said as he introduced himself to the crowd at a White House gathering to mark the end of Ramadan.
“As a matter of fact, there has never been one,” he added.
Delaware, like every state, sends two senators to each Congress, and has elected a total of 58 US senators since 1788. But the First State can claim only a single US president — Joe Biden.
“Kleptocracy,” April 28, 2022
Biden looked bleary-eyed as he pushed for additional Ukraine aid in April.
“I’m also sending to Congress a comprehensive package of — that will enhance our underlying effort to accommodate the Russian oligarchs and make sure we take their — take their, their ill-begotten gains,” Biden began.
“Ha, we’re going to ‘accommodate’ them,” he said, snorting at his own mistake. “We’re going to seize their yachts, their luxury homes, and other ill-begotten gains of Putin’s kleptocrac- — yeah …” he said, blinking hard and looking to aides for help.
“Kleptocracy and klep- — the guys who are the kleptocracies,” he finished with a chuckle. “But these are bad guys.”
“He can barely read,” tweeted radio host Clay Travis. “Everyone can see the look in his eyes here, he’s lost.”
During a talk about green energy, Biden got his arithmetic wrong — by a factor of 12.
Renewable Energy Flub, March 31, 2022
Biden’s tenuous grasp of math leads him to make grandiose – and untrue – claims about how his policies could benefit Americans.
“If your home is powered by safer, cheaper, cleaner electricity, like solar or heat pumps, you can save about $500 a month on average,” Biden said as he touted Democrats’ green energy proposals.
Hours later, the White House quietly corrected the official transcript of president’s remarks, crossing out the word “month” and inserting the word “year” in its place.
In other words, Biden’s costly climate-change plans would save
Americans less than $42 a month, making his original claim
wildly inflated — wrong by a factor of 12.
Biden nearly set off an international incident in the spring when he seemed to call for the overthrow of Vladimir Putin.Russia Regime Change, March 26, 2022
Biden horrified an international audience when he explicitly demanded the overthrow of Vladimir Putin during a speech denouncing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” the president thundered outside the bunting-draped Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, at the end of a three-day visit to Eastern Europe.
Within minutes, the White House rushed to say that Biden didn’t really mean it.
“He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change,” an unnamed aide said.
It was the second time in two days that the White House was forced to contradict the president for fear that his comments could spark Russian retaliation.
During his first State of the Union speech, Biden confused Ukraine with Iran.
State of the Union Switcheroo, March 2, 2022
Biden tried to give a ringing rhetorical boost to embattled Ukraine during his first State of the Union speech, but accidentally praised Iran instead.
“Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks,” the president declared, less than a week after Russia launched its invasion. “But he will never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, seated behind Biden on the dais of the House Chamber in the US Capitol, appeared to grit her teeth and murmur “Ukrainian” as her oblivious boss plowed on, unaware of his error. He made no further mention of Iran in his address.
“Stupid Son of a Bitch,” January 24, 2022
A hot mic picked up Biden’s potty mouth during a presidential meeting on the sagging economy as consumer prices began soaring to then-record highs.
“Do you think inflation is a political liability?” Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked as aides shooed reporters out of the White House East Room.
“No, it’s a great asset — more inflation,” the president sneered, still grinning for the cameras. “What a stupid son of a bitch.”
While the White House cut the vulgar insult from its video feed, it was clearly audible on C-SPAN’s video stream.
In January, Biden repeated the lie that he had been arrested for civil disobedience in the past.
Imaginary Civil Rights Arrest, January 11, 2022
Biden’s false claims of his past civil rights activism were repeatedly debunked during the 2020 presidential campaign — but he’s kept up the malarkey.
“I did not walk in the shoes of generations of students who walked these grounds,” Biden said in Atlanta — which he called “the cradle of civil rights” — in a speech pushing the Democrats’ signature election-law bills.
“But I walked other grounds. ‘Cause I’m so damn old I was there as well,” he said with a grin.
“It seems like yesterday the first time I got arrested,” he added.
But as far back as 1987, Biden has had to publicly admit that his repeated tales of youthful protest are untrue.
At the start of 2022, Biden welcomed the new year of 2020.
What Year Is It? January 4, 2022
We’ve all slipped up in early January by accidentally referring to the old year instead of the one that just began.
Leave it to Joe Biden to fall two years behind the rest of us.
Four days into 2022, Biden took to his fake White House set to tell Americans they should be optimistic about “2020” — the miserable pandemic year that most were glad to be shot of 12 months before.
“There’s a lot of reason to be hopeful in 2020,” Biden said, as he begged listeners to get COVID shots and boosters. “But for God’s sake, please take advantage of what is available.”
“The Great Negro,” November 11, 2021
Biden stunned a somber Veterans Day crowd at Arlington National Cemetery when he awkwardly used the word “Negro” while joking about his age.
“I’ve adopted the attitude of the great Negro at the time,” a squinting Biden said, soon after laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“Pitcher of the Negro Leagues,” he went on, “who went on to become a great pitcher in the pros — in Major League Baseball — after Jackie Robinson. His name was Satchel Paige.”
He went on to regale his listeners with a story he had previously told to a confused Pope Francis.
Biden forgot the name of the Australian prime minister during a joint press conference with two other world leaders. “That Fella Down Under,” September 15, 2021
Biden ruined his roll-out of a new defense pact with Britain and Australia when he blanked out on Aussie leader Scott Morrison’s name.
The president was flanked by screens for a virtual ceremony unveiling the AUKUS military initiative to supply Australia with nuclear submarines.
“Thank you, Boris,” Biden said, pointing to the video feed of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “And I want to thank, er … that fella Down Under,” he stumbled, indicating Morrison. “Thank you very much, pal. Appreciate it, Mr. Prime Minister.”
“Our cultural cringe just tripled,” Australian commentator Matt Bevan moaned.
Worse, the deal itself blindsided France, another key US ally, and sparked a diplomatic uproar.
Biden lied about visiting the Tree of Life Synagogue after a mass shooting that killed 11 people.
Tree of Life Synagogue claim, September 2, 2021
In a meandering High Holy Days message to Jewish leaders, Biden fibbed about visiting the Pittsburgh congregation where, in 2018, 11 people were slain in the nation’s worst anti-Semitic hate crime.
“I remember spending time at the, you know, going to the, you know, the Tree of Life synagogue, speaking with them,” Biden said.
The next day, the White House had to admit that Biden made the story up.
Biden struggled with his memory throughout the virtual meeting with the rabbis. “My mind is going blank now,” he said as he fought to recall details of his daughter Ashley’s 2012 wedding.
Disastrous Afghanistan Predictions, July 8, 2021
The president tried to put a happy face on the US pullout from Afghanistan as his deadly failure there loomed.
“The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” Biden told reporters — one month before the insurgent group seized control.
Biden promised that, unlike the chaotic end to the Vietnam War, “There’s gonna be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”
Weeks later, nearly 200 Americans had to be airlifted from Kabul’s Baron Hotel in US Army Chinooks.
Biden addressed reporters by yelling, “What the hell? What do you do all of the time?”
Explodes at Reporters, June 16, 2021
The president regularly lashes out at journalists who press him on uncomfortable questions.
When reporters asked why Biden was “so confident” that Russian President Vladimir Putin will “change his behavior” after their 2021 summit in Geneva, Switzerland, he lost his cool completely.
“I’m not confident he’ll change his behavior!” he shouted, jabbing his finger for emphasis. “What the hell? What do you do all of the time? When did I say I was confident?”
The outburst came after Putin appeared to outfox Biden by leveraging their private meeting for Russia’s propaganda benefit.
At the G7 summit in 2021, Biden forgot that the president of South Africa had already been introduced.
Mocked by World Leaders, June 14, 2021
A befuddled Biden became the butt of world leaders’ jokes at the Group of 7 summit meeting in Cornwall, England.
At the start of a roundtable discussion, Biden interrupted British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and told him to introduce “the president of South Africa” — even though Johnson had already done so, welcoming President Cyril Ramaphosa by name.
“And, and, and the president of South Africa,” a startled Johnson responded. “As I said early on.”
“Oh, you did?” the dazed-looking Biden asked — sending French President Emanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and other heads of state into peals of laughter.
At a Coast Guard commencement ceremony, Biden called the cadets “dull.”
“Dull” Coast Guard Cadets, May 19, 2021
Biden blasted the audience at a Coast Guard commencement ceremony when his ripped-off joke fell flat — because he botched the punch line.
“I can only assume,” Biden said with a grin, “that you will enjoy educating your family about how the Coast Guard is, quote, ‘the hard nucleus around the Navy forms in times of war’.”
But the cadets responded with puzzled silence.
“You are a — why, you’re a really dull class,” Biden snapped. “I mean, come on, man, is the sun getting to you?”
Video from 1988 shows that President Ronald Reagan drew cheers with his smooth delivery of the one-liner that Biden failed to copy.
“The Coast Guard is that hard nucleus about which the Navy forms in time of war,” Reagan said.
On more than one occasion, Biden has called his VP “President Harris.”“President” Harris, March 18, 2021
Who’s in charge here? President Biden isn’t always so sure: he has, on multiple occasions, dubbed his number two, Kamala Harris, the commander-in-chief.
It started last year as Biden delivered a White House speech on COVID-19 vaccines.
“When President Harris and I took a virtual tour of a vaccination center in Arizona not long ago,” he stated, “one of the nurses on that, on that tour injecting people, giving vaccinations, said that each shot was like administering a dose of hope.”
He didn’t seem to notice he’d given his job away – a flub he went on to repeat again and again.
Biden forgot the name of former general Lloyd Austin, who is his Secretary of Defense.
Defense Secretary Who? March 8, 2021
Six weeks into his presidency, Biden was unable to recall the name of his Secretary of Defense, retired four-star Army general Lloyd Austin, at a White House ceremony.
“And I want to thank the sec — the, the, ah former general,” Biden vamped as he searched his memory for Austin’s name, while a masked Vice President Kamala Harris side-eyed the president from behind his back.
“I keep calling him general, but my, my — the guy who runs that outfit over there,” he finished lamely.
Minutes earlier, Biden had successfully managed to read Austin’s name off a teleprompter.
Prior to becoming president…
“A Much Higher IQ,” 1987
Three decades ago, Biden’s verbal attack on a voter at a New Hampshire house party helped derail his first presidential campaign.
When Claremont, NH, high-school teacher Frank Fahey asked Biden what law school he attended, the then-senator from Delaware melted down.
“I probably have a much higher IQ than you do, I suspect,” Biden snapped as he expounded on a glittering academic record that, reporters later found, was largely imaginary.
The exchange, captured by C-Span’s cameras, resurfaced months later, when Biden was revealed as a serial plagiarist going back to his college days. He abandoned his White House bid soon after.
“Slight Indian Accent,” 2006
In 2006, as he explored a second presidential run, Biden’s penchant for racial insensitivity caused him repeated headaches.
“In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans, moving from India,” he told one voter.
“You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. And I’m not joking,” he added with a grin.
Indian-American groups objected to what they called “embarrassing, stereotypical comments.”
“We do appreciate knowing what he really thinks of his Indian-American constituents,” said Dr. Raghavendra Vijayanagar of the Indian-American Republican Council.
“Articulate and Bright and Clean,” 2007
An “African American who is articulate and bright and clean,”
Biden’s attempt at magnanimity toward a fellow presidential hopeful backfired spectacularly in 2007.
“I mean, you’ve got the first sort of mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean,” Biden said of then-Sen. Barack Obama as both campaigned ahead of the 2008 primaries. “That’s a storybook, man.”
The backhanded compliment instantly branded Biden, then 65, as an out-of-touch remnant of a racially tone-deaf generation — and helped to elevate Obama above the rest of the pack.
“I didn’t take Sen. Biden’s comments personally,” Obama said in a carefully distanced response. “Obviously they were historically inaccurate.”
Debate debacle, 2012
Voters cringed through the vice-presidential debate between Biden and Republican Paul Ryan in 2012, as the hyper-aggressive veep put on a bravura 90-minute display of mugging and eye-rolling.
“Oh, now you’re Jack Kennedy?” Biden broke in as Ryan explained how the GOP’s tax-cut plan mirrored Kennedy’s in 1960.
“Look, this is a bunch of stuff,” he exclaimed later.
All told, Biden interrupted Ryan 85 times with sudden guffaws and dismissive interjections — a heckling strategy much like the one that Donald Trump turned on Biden in their first debate this year.
“You Stupid Bastards,” 2016
A peevish Biden scolded American troops for their tepid response to a set-up applause line in 2016.
“Clap for that, you stupid bastards,” the vice-president barked, minutes into his speech to the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing stationed in Abu Dhabi.
Biden was seeking kudos for his “incredibly good judgment” in having nominated one of the group’s officers to the Air Force Academy — but his pronouncement was met with crickets.
“Man, you are a dull bunch,” he complained, as service members standing behind him gave him the side-eye.
“Gangbangers,” 2019
Biden’s apparent cluelessness about racially sensitive language has repeatedly landed him in hot water. One day after Kamala Harris scorched him for his past opposition to racially integrating schools through busing in a June 2019 debate, Biden fumbled to redeem himself.
“We’ve got to recognize that a kid wearing a hoodie may very well be the next poet laureate,” he told members of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition — “not a gangbanger.”
In seeking to dispel damaging stereotypes, critics said, Biden reinforced them.
“This is just another example of lessons that Joe Biden shouldn’t have to learn,” sighed New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
“Poor Kids” vs. “White Kids,” 2019
A speech to a group of minority activists in Des Moines, Iowa, set the stage for a stunning Biden blunder.
“We should challenge students in these schools to have Advanced Placement programs,” he said at an Aug. 8, 2019, town hall.
“We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor you can not do it,” Biden went on. “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”
After a pause, he realized his faux pas.
“Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids,” he revamped. “No, I really mean it, but think how we think about it.”
“Look, Fat,” 2019
Aides scrambled to convince voters not to believe their lying ears after Biden launched a barrage of abuse at a retired Iowa farmer who said he was too old for the presidency and questioned son Hunter’s cushy gig with the scandal-scarred Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
“You’re a damn liar, man,” Biden snarled at Merle Gorman (above) at a campaign stop on Dec. 5, 2019.
“And by the way, I’m not sedentary,” he added — an apparent dig at Gorman’s weight. “Let’s do push-ups together, man, let’s run, let’s do whatever you want to do. Let’s take an IQ test, all right?”
As the contentious exchange continued, Biden grew increasingly agitated, finally saying, “Look, look, fat, look. Here’s the deal.”
“It looks like you don’t have any more backbone than Trump does,” Gorman snapped.
But Biden advisor Symone D. Sanders insisted her boss had said “Look, facts” instead.
“Any assertion VP Biden said a word about the gentleman’s appearance is making this something it is not,” Sanders claimed.
“Go Vote for Someone Else,” 2020
Biden got physical with an Iowa climate-change activist who tried to talk up the issue during a selfie session at a Des Moines event in January.
“You ought to go vote for someone else,” the irritated front-runner told Ed Fallon, who lobbied Biden to denounce a proposed gas pipeline.
As the conversation grew increasingly tense, Biden patted Fallon’s chest, jabbed him with a finger and grabbed his jacket with both hands — as aides tried desperately to defuse the exchange.
“It was not an appropriate interaction with anybody,” Fallon told KCCI Des Moines. “If I’d done that to him, security would have been all over me.”
“Lying Dog-Faced Pony Soldier,” 2020
One week after his humiliating fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Biden slammed a young voter with a head-scratching taunt.
“How can you explain the performance in Iowa, and why should the voters believe you can win the national election?” Madison Moore (above), a 21-year-old college student, asked at a campaign stop in Hampton, NH.
“Ever been to a caucus?” Biden challenged her.
Moore nodded yes.
“No, you haven’t,” he told the dumbfounded young woman. “You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
Moore later criticized Biden’s “inability to answer a simple question from a nobody college student like me.”
“It was kind of humiliating to be called a liar on national TV by the former vice president,” she told the Macon Telegraph.
“You’re Full of Shit,” You “Horse’s Ass,” 2020
Biden’s exchange with Michigan construction worker Jerry Wayne turned fiery during a March 2020 campaign stop in Detroit.
Wayne (left above) challenged Biden’s stance on the Second Amendment, saying that the candidate was “actively trying to … take away our guns.”
“You’re full of shit,” Biden shot back.
The discussion deteriorated from there, as Wayne objected to Biden’s finger-shaking fury — “Don’t tell me I can’t point a finger, I oughta go outside with you,” the vice president
Biden’s exchange with Michigan construction worker Jerry Wayne turned fiery during a March 2020 campaign stop in Detroit.
Wayne (left above) challenged Biden’s stance on the Second Amendment, saying that the candidate was “actively trying to … take away our guns.”
“You’re full of shit,” Biden shot back.
The discussion deteriorated from there, as Wayne objected to Biden’s
finger-shaking fury — “Don’t tell me I can’t point a finger, I oughta go
outside with you,” the vice president sputtered, also calling Wayne a
“horse’s ass” before aides hustled the two apart.
“I didn’t try to raise any feathers,” Wayne told Fox News. “And he kind of just went off the deep end.”
One day after the clash, Wayne became an NRA spokesman.
“You Ain’t Black,” 2020
A racially fraught remark sparked anger among African-American voters who suspected that Biden and the Democrats were taking their votes for granted this election year.
“It’s a long way until November,” radio host Charlamagne Tha God said as he wrapped up a prickly interview on his influential “Breakfast Club” show in May. “We got more questions.”
That seemed to get Biden’s dander up.
“You got more questions?” he flared. “Well I’m telling you, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
The crack drew instant ire from both sides of the political aisle.
“That is the most arrogant, condescending comment I’ve heard in a long time, and that’s saying something,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said.
A chastened Biden tried to undo the damage later that day in a call with black business leaders.
“I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” he said. “I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.”
"Gaffes? No no, trust me, they're all a pack of Republican lies!"
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