Biden press conference stumbles full#

“It doesn’t”-he interrupts himself-“can’t define who you are.” Every time I … describe it, I get … caught on the w-word-uh stuh-tuh-tuh-tutter.” “I’ve only … told a few people I’m … d-doing this piece. I stutter as I begin to ask my first question. His height is commanding, but, as he approaches his 77th birthday, he doesn’t fill out his suit jacket like he used to. Up close, he looks like he’s lost weight since leaving office in 2017. In November, after Biden stumbled multiple times during a debate in Atlanta, the topic would become even more relevant.īiden is in his usual white button-down and navy suit, a flag pin on the left lapel. The aide said he was ready to talk about it. Of course I had-I stutter, far worse than Biden. One of his aides gingerly asked whether I’d noticed the former vice president stutter during the debate.

Several days later, Biden’s team got back in touch with me. Stifling laughter, the host Steve Hilton narrated: “As the right words struggled to make that perilous journey from Joe Biden’s brain to Joe Biden’s mouth, half the time he just seemed to give up with this somewhat tragic and limp admission of defeat.” “The-uh, the ability to buy into the Obamacare plan.” Biden also stumbled when trying to say immune system.įox News edited these moments into a mini montage. “The uh-uh-uh-uh-” His chin dipped toward his chest. “We f-f-f-f-further support-” He opened his eyes. He lifted his hands and thrust them forward, as if trying to pull the missing sound from his mouth. At first, Biden sounded strong, confident, presidential: “My plan makes a limit of co-pay to be One. The candidates were talking about health care. Some of his answers that night had been meandering and difficult to parse, feeding into the narrative that he wasn’t just prone to verbal slipups-he’s called himself a “gaffe machine”-but that his age was a problem, that he was confused and out of touch.ĭetroit was Biden’s chance to regain control of the narrative. He was unprepared when Senator Kamala Harris criticized both his past resistance to federally mandated busing and a recent speech in which he’d waxed fondly about collaborating with segregationist senators. The first one, a month earlier, had been a disaster for Biden. Then came the second debate, at the end of July, in Detroit. When I first reached out, in late June, his press person was polite but noncommittal: Was an interview really necessary for the story ? Since entering the Democratic presidential-primary race in April, Biden has largely avoided in-depth interviews. We’re in Biden’s mostly vacant Washington, D.C., campaign office on an overcast Tuesday at the end of the summer. His voice has that familiar shake, the creak and the croak.

Biden press conference stumbles full#

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