If it's a day that ends in "y," President Joe Biden is probably trying and failing to deliver public remarks without causing confusion. On Monday, the president was in California to deliver "remarks on the climate crisis," but one line stood out because it sounded as though he had taken a time machine, not Air Force One, to the West Coast.
"And maybe most important, I've committed that by 2020, we will have conserved 30 percent of all the lands and waters the United States has jurisdiction over and simultaneously reduced emissions to blunt climate impact," Biden declared in his speech that followed remarks by California Governor Gavin Newsom (D), a potential 2024 primary challenger to Biden waiting in the wings — especially as Biden's fitness (or lack thereof) becomes more of an issue.
WOW: Joe Biden promises to conserve "30% of all the lands and waters the United States has jurisdiction over" by the year...2020? pic.twitter.com/qCoAm2wrYq
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 19, 2023
Despite declaring confidently that he had committed "by twenty-twenty" to conserve a significant portion of federal land, Joe Biden was not president in 2020. He took office in January 2021. In 2020, Biden was still running a presidential campaign from his basement. Nevertheless, he persisted?
Monday's gaffe comes as outlets such as Axios attempt to explain away Biden's frequent failures to get through public remarks without seeming to lose the plot as nothing more than Republicans weaponizing his botched attempts to follow a prompter or go off-script without falling to pieces.
Last week, President Biden closed a speech urging stricter gun control with "alright, God save the queen, man."
Biden wraps up his remarks in Connecticut: "Alright, God save the queen, man" pic.twitter.com/NJShsIA1eg
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 16, 2023
The White House pool reporter covering the event had no clue what Biden meant by the line, and he wasn't alone. According to Biden's aides, it wasn't a gaffe — it was just Biden "commenting to someone in the crowd." Right.
BREAKING: @POTUS ended his gun control event in Connecticut just now with a baffling remark: “God save the Queen, man.” @WhiteHouse correspondent @toddgillman of @dallasnews, today’s pool reporter, told the press corps to stop asking him why Mr. Biden said it (Gillman: “I have… pic.twitter.com/KDcOkaJJih
— James Rosen (@JamesRosenTV) June 16, 2023
Biden's wish for God to save the queen, presumably Elizabeth II — who has not been alive for more than eight months — wasn't Biden's only confounding comment on Friday. He also trotted out the old "dog-faced lyin' pony soldier" line, because when you're as off the rails as Biden often is, why not?
BIDEN: "Don't make me a dog-faced lyin' pony soldier!" pic.twitter.com/atePWYeCiJ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 16, 2023
As Townhall reported in April, West Wing aides said the White House "rarely puts Biden in improvisational settings — or in front of hostile questions from reporters," making it "difficult to schedule public or private events with the president in the morning, in the evening, or on weekends" while the administration tries to limit Biden to his supposedly peak hours in an attempt to limit the number and frequency of gaffes. But even those best efforts are, just considering the past week, clearly not working.