President Biden surprised listeners on Wednesday by bragging about his ability to launch nuclear weapons – before calling Donald Trump a “congressman” and seemingly forgetting the names of the current leaders of China and South Korea.
“Now look, my Marines carry that, but it has the code to blow up the world,” the 81-year-old commander-in-chief said as he introduced himself to factory workers in Colorado.
“This isn’t a nuclear weapon, is it?” Biden added while visiting South Korean company CS Wind’s facility in Pueblo, touted by the White House as the world’s largest manufacturer of wind towers.
Moments later, Biden blundered through a 23-minute speech as polls showed a large majority of voters worried about his mental acuity as he seeks re-election.
“I’m friends with your boss, Mr. Moon, you know,” Biden told the corporate leader — apparently referring to former South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who leaves office in 2022.
South Korea’s current president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has interacted with Biden at numerous events and was even honored by Biden in April at his second state dinner since taking office.
President Biden makes a joke during a tour of a manufacturing plant in Pueblo, Colorado, November 29, 2023. REUTERS A military aide carries a “football,” containing a nuclear launch code, before boarding Marine One behind President Joe Biden. AP
The blunder continued as the president called out Trump in what the White House has advertised as a planned attack on Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) for opposing the Biden-backed economic bill.
“We can use it [a billionaire minimum tax] to strengthen the Social Security and Medicare systems instead of cutting them as Congressmen Trump and Boebert want to do,” Biden said.
Trump, 77, opposed efforts by some fellow Republicans to overhaul Social Security during his presidency and is the GOP front-runner to run against Biden again in next year’s election.
In another possible stumble, Biden recalled what he said was a conversation with the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who died in 1997 and was best known for liberalizing China’s economy to introduce elements of capitalism in the late 1970s and 80s.
“I said this to Deng Xiaoping in the Himalayas and I have said this to every world leader: It is never, ever, a good bet to bet against the American people,” the president said.
The story resembles Biden’s oft-told anecdotes involving what he claimed were conversations with current Chinese President Xi Jinping during their respective vice presidencies.
At another point in his speech, Biden claimed to have “cut the federal deficit by more than $7 billion” — likely a slip on his more frequent claim to cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion, which at one point was true but only when factoring in the fallout from COVID-19 and stimulus spending.
The 81-year-old commander in chief raised eyebrows on Wednesday when he said, “My Marines carry that, and have the code to blow up the world” after introducing himself to factory workers in Colorado. AFP via Getty Images The US is estimated to have around 4,000 nukes. AFP/Getty Images
The national debt is currently more than $33.8 trillion — up more than $6 trillion since Biden took office — and fiscal year 2023, which ends on September 30, sees the highest non-pandemic deficit in US history at $1.7 trillion.
Biden’s nuclear football joke went viral on social media Wednesday along with his series of pranks at the same stop.
The president is famously accompanied on the trip by a military aide who carries a briefcase with items that could be used to authorize a nuclear attack — including a card containing an authentication code.
While Biden’s defenders argue that he is fallible, fellow Democrats have expressed concern over his recent public gaffes.
US President Joe Biden arrives to deliver a speech on his “Bidenomics” economic plan, at CS Wind, the world’s largest manufacturer of wind towers, in Pueblo, Colorado, on November 29, 2023. AFP via Getty Images Joe Biden talks about Bidenomics at CS Wind on November 29, 2023 in Pueblo, Colorado. Getty Images
David Axelrod, the former chief campaign strategist to President Barack Obama, said this month that “in front of the camera, what he’s showing is causing people to worry, and that’s troubling.”
A New York Times poll released Nov. 7 found 71% of swing state voters said Biden is “too old to be an effective president,” while only 39% said the same about Trump.
A Wall Street Journal poll released in September found that 73% of registered voters believe Biden is too old, compared to 47% who said the same about Trump.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
