President Biden averaged nearly a gaffe per workday over the past four weeks, errors that included mispronunciations, confusion, inaccuracies, and forgetting that a congresswoman had died.
Biden is hitting .810 from September 26 to October 24, committing at least 17 gaffes.
The president mostly fails to get on base over the long weekends when he often travels to his home state of Delaware and is generally kept away from microphones and cameras. One exception was his iconic bike fall in Rehoboth Beach, but that was back in June. He spent eight days in Delaware over the four-week stretch. It wouldn't be fair to count those days toward his average, since he usually doesn't get a chance at bat.
Biden, as he wished a happy birthday to Vice President Kamala Harris Monday, called her a "great president." He later called Harris the "highest ranking black Indian, with Indian background, woman, in American history to be Vice President." That same day, Biden botched United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's name. One day prior, NowThis posted an interview with the president where he falsely described his executive order on college debt forgiveness as a bill that "passed by a vote or two."
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The president’s struggles come as he prepares to turn 80 on November 20. Still, he said this month that he intends to run for reelection in 2024.
The most viral blunder from Biden in the past month came on September 28, when he called out to the late Rep. Jackie Walorski, who passed away in a car crash in August.
"Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie? She must not be here," Biden said at the Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health.
Biden appeared to wander after two speeches in recent weeks. Staffers had to direct him in one instance after an event on the Federal Emergency Management Agency response to Hurricane Ian.
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When asked in an interview if his wife supports a 2024 run, Biden paused for several seconds, which appeared to startle the reporter, then delivered a jumbled response.
"Dr. Biden thinks that uh, my wife thinks that uh, that I uh, that, that we're, that we're doing something very important," Biden said.
The president dropped his notes in another interview with CNN, then delivered an improvised, unclear response. He also estimated that his administration has overseen "a billion a trillion 750 million dollars billion dollars off the sidelines of investment" on countering climate change.
Biden’s most common gaffe over this time period was his tendency to misspeak. He mispronounced the Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, announced Pennsylvania Senate Candidate John Fetterman’s wife will be a "great, great lady in the Senate," and declared in one speech, "Let me start off with two words: Made in America." He also spelled out D-O-T as he read a URL off the teleprompter.
"New York sent not only a Congresswoman, one of the most congresswoman in the Congress," he explained in another speech.
The president has displayed unusual physical behavior as well. At one October event, he grabbed a girl’s face and then held her hand for a minute as he greeted others. Seconds later, he held a woman’s shoulder for nearly 30 seconds as he continued to shake hands with the crowd.
