Joe Biden’s 7 Cringeworthy Moments at Wisconsin Town Hall

US President Joe Biden participates in a CNN town hall at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee,
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Wendell Husebø

President Joe Biden had several cringeworthy moments at a CNN town hall event Tuesday night in Wisconsin.

1. Biden claimed at one point that “minorities … don’t know how to use, know how to get online.”

2. After his comments about American minorities, Biden moved on to the topic of Chinese minorities and China’s related human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims, who are widely believed to live in concentration camp-like facilities within China.

Biden explained he’s “not going to speak out against … what he’s [President Xi Jinping] is doing with the Uyghurs.” He then reiterated by saying, “He [Xi] gets it,” posing that “culturally there are different norms” about how humans should be treated.

3. “Everybody knows I like kids better than people,” Biden explained in a poorly landed joke with host Anderson Cooper.

4. Biden improvised when asked about his administration’s original goal of reopening schools five days a week, which changed last week with a new goal of schools only reopening one day a week. “It was a mistake in the communication,” Biden said.

On Wednesday morning, Vice President Kamala Harris went on the Today show to clarify Biden’s comment, stressing that “teachers should be a priority,” contradicting the scientific community’s belief that teachers do not need to be vaccinated in order for schools to reopen.

5. The coronavirus comments continued when Biden then claimed, “We didn’t have [the vaccine] when we came into office,” which fact-checkers were quick to debunk. The first dose of the Pfizer vaccine was given on December 14 and the first dose of the Moderna vaccine was given on December 22 — a month before he was inaugurated on January 20, 2021.

6. Before the night was over, Biden, who has denied accusations of contracting dementia, was asked, “You’ve already spent a great deal of time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, except now you’re living there and you’re president. It’s been four weeks. What’s it like? How is it different?”

Biden responded, “I wake up every morning, look at Jill, and say, ‘Where the hell are we?’”

7. A few seconds later, Biden, perhaps without knowing he was throwing former President Obama under the bus, said that Obama never invited him to the White House residence when he was vice president, despite the fact Biden served as vice president for eight years.

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