Tipsheet

Joe Biden Just Lost Another Battle With His Teleprompter

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  May 08, 2024 2:30 PM

Well, it happened again. President Joe Biden's handlers failed in their efforts to keep the commander-in-chief together long enough to make it through a public speech, sabotaged by the president's apparent inability to discern what he's supposed to do with the words put into his teleprompter.

During his remarks in Wisconsin on Tuesday afternoon about his "investing in America agenda," Biden kicked things off by regaling the audience with a tale about how his was "the only high school in Delaware that overwhelmingly rooted for Green Bay. Not a joke!" he insisted. 

Then Biden tried to tell a story about one teacher at his high school who "had been drafted by the Green Bay Packers" and used to give students the last period off on Mondays after the Packers won. 

This "theology professor," Biden said, "was a guy named Riley last name." Watch: 

While we'll likely never get the full story, it seems Biden's handlers loading his speech into the teleprompter either forgot to fill in Riley's last name or maybe Biden couldn't remember it when he suggested the anecdote for inclusion. In any case — as is usual for Biden — he read whatever scrolled past his eyes, including placeholder text. 

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It also remains unknown whether Biden truly was a Packers fan, whether he used to get time off school when they won, or if "Riley last name" even existed and was drafted by Green Bay. 

Biden had a similar self-inflicted teleprompter issue when, at the end of April in a speech at the North America’s Building Trades Union National Legislative Conference, he read aloud a "PAUSE" inserted to allow a planned chant of "four more years" from the audience.