At a press conference following a key NATO summit in Washington D.C., President Joe Biden fielded a raft of questions about his fitness for office.
The questions followed weeks of speculation that he may step down as the Democratic Party candidate over perceptions that his health and cognitive capacity is declining. And while Biden dismissed those concerns, some people saw him admitting that he had a list of pre-screened reporters to ask him questions as undermining that dismissal.
“I’ll take your questions, I’ve been given a list of people to call on here,” Biden said, holding up a piece of paper before calling on Reuters for a question about his political future given calls from some people for him to step down from the race.
Some people couldn’t believe that Biden admitted he had a list of reporters to call on.
“Was he supposed to say that?” asked @jelliott136.
“No. He reads notes and directions off the teleprompter. It’s a known thing,” answered @lissyforliberty.
Back in April Biden was dinged for reading an instruction to “pause” out loud from a teleprompter script.
Other posters defended Biden, tongue firmly in cheek.
“They have to give him a list, do you think he could even remember any of their names?” posted @Elizabe94195648.
After quickly cycling through a series of gaffes—including accidentally calling Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump” while replying to a question about whether he sees her as fit to govern as president—Biden also got confused for a few seconds while reading one of the names on the list.
“He … immediately lost his place on his list of question takers,” posted @Booperstopped.
And given this presser was explicitly expected to assuage people’s fears about Biden, the list slip-up didn’t quite help.
“Biden says his handlers gave him a pre-selected list of reporters to call on at his “big boy press conference,” wrote the RNC.
“Omg,” posted @Jodyjtaylor. “It’s over.”
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