Tipsheet

Leon Panetta Thinks He Knows Why Biden Keeps Making Gaffes

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  March 29, 2022 10:05 AM

President Joe Biden's penchant for gaffes has become front of mind again this week following his ad-libbed line about Putin's future as the leader of Russia during a speech in Poland on Saturday, after which he proceeded to botch his attempt to clarify what he said in a press conference on Monday. 

While some point to his age as the source of his frequent gaffes, former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta — someone who served alongside Biden in the Obama administration — apparently has a new theory that's more of a slight at a group of Americans than a cogent argument. 

Joining Alisyn Camerota on CNN on Monday, Panetta made his case as to why he believed Biden made the statement contradicting the United States — and his own administration's — policy toward Putin:

"I happen to think that Joe Biden, you know, is Irish," Panetta told Camerota, apparently opening a new line of excuses for Biden's frequently bungled statements. Apparently, being Irish means that Biden, in addition to being a gaffe machine, "really, has a great deal of compassion when he sees that people are suffering," Panetta claimed, before suggesting Biden was "overwhelmed" by what Putin has been doing. 

Well, that might be believable if Biden's gaffes all took place after a few pints during of a pub crawl in Dublin. But they're not, Biden's comments are under the influence of nothing other than his own brain and despite all the help his handlers can offer — including giving him simple talking points on a cheat sheet that he promptly disregards. 

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As far as Panetta's claim that Biden is compassionate due to his Irish heritage, Biden has not been all that compassionate toward Americans. Threatening a winter of "severe illness and death," demonizing Americans by blaming those who choose not to get vaccinated against COVID for the pandemic's spread, and calling Peter Doocy a "stupid son of a bitch" do not a compassionate man — Irish or otherwise — make. 

Panetta's excuses for Biden, however desperate, echo a Biden quote from earlier in March. While speaking in the U.S. Capitol on the occasion of St. Patrick's Day, President Biden claimed "I may be Irish, but I'm not stupid."