A damning new assessment of President Joe Biden’s gaffes, mistakes, and outright falsehoods he is telling on the campaign trail is likely giving his administration new headaches as his campaign works to reverse his stunning drop in the polls.
“President Biden has committed 148 gaffes and verbal stumbles in public comments so far this year, which White House staff have scrambled to fix in official transcripts,” the New York Post reported on Tuesday. “Biden, 81, tripped over his tongue in at least 118 statements, speeches or comments between Jan. 1 and April 24, according to an analysis of White House records reviewed by the Daily Caller — meaning there were more glaring errors to correct than official announcements.”
The recent changes made to the president’s statements were either to align them with public policy stances or to alter their meaning entirely.
Last week, during a speech at the North America’s Building Trades Unions National Legislative Conference, Biden inadvertently read a cue from his teleprompter aloud, which caused him to botch a scripted call for his re-election. “Folks, imagine what we can do next,” he told the audience. “Four more years. Pause.”
The transcript provided by the White House initially omitted a momentary pause and replaced it with the word “inaudible”. The transcript was later corrected, and the corrected version was released. During his speeches, Biden has also made at least 20 errors in identifying people, places, or groups, including misidentifying the leaders of France, Egypt, and Mexico.
Sometimes, staff have edited words, including Supreme Court nominations and his vice president, to align with Biden’s reasoning. “And look at what these autocrats are doing to limit freedom in their countries. They’re limiting freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom to assemble, women’s rights, LGB[T]Q rights, people are going to jail, so much more,” a Jan. 5 transcript shows, updating the acronym reference to transgender people.
“I kept my promise to appoint the first Black [woman] Supreme Court justice,” a Feb. 22 campaign reception transcript reads, which was corrected to reflect his choice of Ketanji Brown Jackson. As The Post noted, “Two black men, Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, have previously been appointed to the high court.”
On March 9, White House staff inserted “historic” before Biden’s mention of Vice President Kamala Harris, acknowledging her as the first Black and South Asian female to hold the office. Biden’s occasional inaccuracies with numbers have also been evident, such as when he has inaccurately inflated executive branch spending or efforts to vaccinate Americans against COVID-19, the report noted further.
“We vaccinated the vast bulk of America. We got through that pandemic with less than 200 million — with less than 2 million people being vaccinated when I came to office. Today, 720 [270] million Americans have gotten COVID vaccine,” a Jan. 30 campaign speech transcript indicates; the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the U.S. population to be around 335 million.
“But the most notable flub of the night was Biden’s mispronunciation of the name of 22-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who authorities say was killed by a migrant who illegally entered the US during his presidency,” The Post reported. “Biden called her ‘Lincoln’ — but the speech’s transcript still shows it as ‘Lanken’ and corrects it to ‘Laken.'”
The report comes amid worsening poll numbers for Biden. In a head-to-head matchup with Biden, former President Donald Trump’s support has held firm at 49 percent, according to a newly released CNN survey. Biden’s support dropped from 45 percent to 43 percent when compared with his numbers at the start of the year.
According to the poll, when asked about Trump’s job performance, 55 percent of respondents now consider his first term as successful while 44 percent view it as a failure. In January 2021, shortly after Trump left office, 55 percent of respondents classified his term as a failure. Only 39% of registered voters believe President Biden’s presidency has been successful, while a significant 61% think it has been a failure. Among independents, 51% say Trump’s presidency was successful, while only 37% see Biden’s as a success.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.