Joe Biden has been raising eyebrows again, with another series of blunders – and a surreal joke about a visiting Prime Minister.
This time, the United States President erroneously announced a “$40 billion” investment in the Pacific Islands Infrastructure Initiative (PIII). The White House later corrected an online transcript of the speech to show that it was actually a $40 million investment.
After nearly managing to give away £39,960,000,000 more than was intended to the scheme, the POTUS then appeared to have trouble remembering the four letters in its acronym – even though three of the letters are the same.
Speaking to the Pacific Islands Forum at a summit in the White House on Monday (September 25) Biden said: “So, today, I’m pleased to announce we’re working with Congress to invest $40 billion in our Pacific Islands Infrastructure Initiative. We call it the P.G… P.I… — anyway, it doesn’t matter what we call it, but that’s what it is.”
Biden’s reaction sparked laughter from his guests, but he styled it out by adding: “I was going to get back to acronyms, and I’m going to — I’m going to — withstand not doing that.”
The President has previously spoken out about how he overcame a speech impediment during his youth, but his vocal stumbles have gained increasing attention due to voter concerns about his age.
And Biden also made what appears to have been a surreal joke about Cook Islands’ Prime Minister Mark Brown, who spoke at the summit and said that his country wants to build a “genuine partnership with the United States”.
Biden spoke of how the two nations would benefit from “formally establishing diplomatic relations”. But he then said: “‘The real reason is we are both from Baltimore, but that’s a long story.”
Biden was born in Scranton, which lies some 200 miles north of Baltimore – and attended the University of Delaware, which is 150 miles to the south. As for PM Brown, he appears to have even less of a claim on Baltimore – as he was born 6,784 miles away on the Coook Island of Raratonga, and went to University in New Zealand.
It would seem the Baltmore claim was intended as a surrealist joke, as it provoked some laughter – and Biden quickly added: “But — but all kidding aside, the Cook Islands and Niue.”
However, it’s unlikely that all Democrats will be laughing at Biden’s irreverent sense of humour. Some fear Biden’s advancing age is becoming a liability ahead of the 2024 election – and a threat to the party’s hopes of staying in power.
Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville recently told the New York Times said: “The voters don’t want this, and that’s in poll after poll after poll. You can’t look at what you look at and not feel some apprehension here.”
And one regional Democratic leader even said the United States President “is in a period of his life where passing and death is imminent”.
